Regional Institute of Printing Technology Kolkata joins Ghent Workgroup

Ghent Workgroup to train graduate students on print technology

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Ghent
Ghent Workgroup association with The Regional Institute of Printing Technology, Kolkata

The Ghent Workgroup (GWG) is thrilled to announce the Regional Institute of Printing Technology Kolkata joining it as an educational member. The RIT located in Jadavpur in South Kolkata is a leading regional level institute offering trans-formative and functional education in graphic communication media technologies.

The Regional Institute of Printing Technology, Kolkata, was established in July 1956 and started its course curricula with some equipment prevalent at that time. Since then, several attempts have been made to keep pace with today’s technology and now offer full-time 3-year duration diploma programs on printing technology, multimedia technology, and photography.

All the diploma programs are approved by the All India Council for Technical Education and affiliated with the West Bengal State Council of Technical and Vocational Education and Skill Development.

Regional Institute of Printing Technology associated with Ghent Workgroup as an educational member

Shankhya Debnath, Lecturer, Department of Printing Technology, said, “We wanted to be part of the GWG because we realized that most print production workflows are now digitized and automated. We are constantly striving to update our curriculum and develop skills in our students that will help them become quality conscious of succeeding in such a print production environment.

Shankhya Debnath, Lecturer in Printing Technology at The Regional Institute of Printing Technology
Shankhya Debnath, Lecturer in Printing Technology at The Regional Institute of Printing Technology

In this direction, we believe that being part of the GWG, which is at the forefront of developing specifications and best practices for PDF exchange, can help guide our efforts in the right direction.

Likewise, we hope to be an important stakeholder in the GWG community by providing feedback from employers and print industry professionals to help develop specifications that serve the print community at large. We are honored and proud to be associated with the GWG as an educational member,” Debnath added.

Graduate students in Printing Technology often specialize in either print production or the prepress. Major recruiters for students of the institute are the packaging printing industry and the publishing industry.

In their laboratories, students are introduced to modern color management workflows in print production. Quality control parameters and tools are also focused on throughout the 3-year program to help students become well-rounded professionals in the future. 

“We welcome the Regional Institute of Printing Technology of Calcutta as a member of the Ghent Workgroup. Print is changing, and students are our future. They help envision the new technologies, products, and processes and then implement them,” said GWG Chair David Zwang.

Involving them in the research and development work we do at GWG and having them work with us to educate their peers is what we need to ensure a strong and exciting future for print,” Zwang added.

 

2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India

Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.

The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry. While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.

The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.

Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.

Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.

Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.

– Naresh Khanna

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