Inaugurating the East Zone competition for the online Print Olympiad 2024, Prof Kanai Chandra Paul of Jadavpur University appreciated the efforts of the Offset Printers Association (OPA) for organizing the event. He said such efforts are needed to encourage the younger generation to adopt printing as a career. Paul emphasized the key role of printing technology in spreading education among the masses.
Print Olympiad, organized by OPA, is the brainchild of Kamal Mohan Chopra. It is said to be one of the biggest talent hunts in printing and the only competition of its kind anywhere in the world.
Speaking on the occasion, Malay Sankar Barik, senior software engineering manager at Adobe Systems, expressed his views on the increasing importance of personalization in print and the role that print technologists can play in the domain. He said the Print Olympiad can be a tool for persuading students to learn out-of-the-box ideas and be prepared for the latest innovations in printing and packaging.
The sixth edition of the Print Olympiad is in progress these days. The first round of the competition for students of printing institutions of eastern India (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Sikkim, Tripura, West Bengal, and Andaman and Nicobar Islands) was organized virtually on 20 January.
The entire event was conducted online and students had to answer 50 questions within 30 minutes, with no negative marking.
The East Zone competitions, to select the region’s ‘Top Print Student’, are hosted by the Regional Institute of Printing (RIPT), Kolkata. The East Zone coordinators for Print Olympiad are Shankhya Debnath, lecturer, department of printing technology, Regional Institute of Printing Technology, Kolkata and Arpitam Chatterjee, associate professor, department of Printing Engineering, Jadavpur University. Twelve students from various institutes in Eastern India participated in the competition.
The chief co-ordinator of the project, TKS Lakshmi Priya, academic consultant spoke about the concept and significance of the Print Olympiad. She said the event has attracted the attention of students all over India to join printing courses.
Speaking about the concept and rules, she said students in any field of printing and packaging pursuing diplomas, BVoc, DVoc, BE, BTech are eligible to participate. The idea of the Print Olympiad is to find the best brains among the printing students and award them. The objective of the Print Olympiad is to give opportunities to students of printing to highlight their technical knowledge and their technology-readiness. The event has attracted the attention of printer associations all over the globe.
The jury for the preliminary MCQ test for East Zone includes Brundaban Behera, director of Print Tech Offset Odisha, Subhrajit Ray, press and forms manager, government of West Bengal, Shilpi Naskar, assistant professor, department of printing engineering, Jadavpur University and Krishnendu Halder, head of department, printing technology, Regional Institute of Printing Technology.
The judges short-listed the top seven students from the region, who will be eligible for the regional finale to be organized physically at a leading printing institution. The winning students are Oishi Chakraborty, Waliul Hoque, both from RIPT Kolkata. Shadab Alam, Harshit Chaturvedi, Binila Biswas, Vishwarup De and Suyash Srivastavam, all from Jadavpur University, Kolkata.
In his concluding remarks and vote of thanks, Anubhava Shiksharthi, advisor of the project, appreciated the coordinators for their efforts and advised them to study the latest ideas of printing and packaging.
