The virtual edition of JLF Houston will be held from 16 – 17 October 2021. Attendees will get to discover an immersive lineup of sessions on Memoir, Fiction & Nonfiction, Latinx Poetry, Medicine, Bollywood, Migration & Identity, Diaspora Writing, Economy & Politics, and Mythology.
Houston will feature several speakers of global acclaim like the Lionel Gelber Prize-winning author Adam Tooze; celebrated Indian American author Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni; American author, journalist, and two-time Pushcart Prize recipient Lisa Taddeo; bilingual poet, writer, activist, and educator Lupe Mendez; Indian director, writer, and producer Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra; investigative journalist and New York Times bestselling author Katherine Eban; and Jaipur Literature Festival co-director and author Namita Gokhale.
The digital avatar of JLF New York will take place on 20 October 2021. The cultural spectacle will include inspiring conversations across a variety of themes such as Poetry & Translations, Fiction, Current Affairs & Politics.
The New York sessions will feature a host of eminent authors and speakers, including Indian writer and journalist Amitava Kumar; writer, actor, and child rights activist Nandana Dev Sen; Booker Prize-shortlisted British-Somali author Nadifa Mohamed; author and former Indian diplomat TCA Raghavan; and former United States ambassador to India Kenneth I. Juster.
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.
