The annual general meeting of the Delhi Printers’ Association was held at Harkishan Singh Surjeet Bhawan on 15 April 2023. Prakash Dass elected as the new president for the year 2023-24
After welcoming the members to the AGM, the immediate former president Sunil Jain welcomed president Atul Goel, general secretary Prakash Dass and treasurer Puneet Talwar. In his welcome address Goel expressed his gratitude to the members for reposing their faith in him by electing him as president for the year 2022-2023.
Greeting the members, Dass read out the annual report for the outgoing year and condoled the death of members in the past year. Talwar presented the statement of annual accounts for the year 2021-2022, which was duly approved.
Returning officer Mukesh Kaushik read out names of the unanimously elected new team for 2023-2024 and invited them to assemble at the dais for a group photograph. The new team was individually introduced and felicitated with garlands by the outgoing office bearers.
The outgoing president Atul Goel was honored with a memento and a shawl in recognition of his exemplary stewardship and for raising the benchmark for the printing fraternity.
A memento was given to Uma Maheshwar Rao, senior manager, tech sales and marketing, Chemline Adhesives and Coatings. Rao said that for the past several decades, Chemline has been producing world-class material in India for the Indian printing and packaging industry as well as for exports. Replying to a suggestion by Lalit Sayal of Sita Fine Art, Rao promised to work out an economic package for the association members.
Former president Arun Berry congratulated the new team for 2023-2024 and praised the role of DPA as an important platform to reach out to various government departments for resolution of different issues.
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.
