Mohan Kohli who grew The Printers House into one of the leading web offset press manufacturers in the world, passed away on 26 June 2022 in New Delhi. The Chautha is scheduled at 4 pm on 30 June 2022 at the Chinmaya Mission, Lodhi Estate.
The Printers House was founded by the Kohli-Sahni families that spawned any number of other web offset manufacturers in Faridabad where its factory was based and in the Delhi NCR of which Faridabad is one of the first industrial townships.
Born in 1939, Mohan Kohli had been ill for the past several years and he leaves behind his wife Natasha and son Rishab. In the past more than two years his son Rishab Kohli has been managing the company. As its director, he has provided leadership to a company with customers in more than 60 countries around the world.
One knew Mohan Kohli as an engineer trained in Switzerland and remembers him showing the Swiss measuring instruments in his factory, talking about automation in manufacturing, and his drive for standardized serial manufacturing. He was known as a keen supporter of IPAMA – unruffled by the ups and downs of the industry.
As one of his IPAMA colleagues has said on hearing the news of his passing, “Mohan Kohli was respected globally – a gentleman giant of the Indian printing equipment manufacturing industry.” As the industry faces the current challenges and opportunities, it takes a deep breath and pauses to mourn one of its builders. May he rest in peace.
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.
