The Great Indian Print Story unfolded when I was criss-crossing the country. I was razzle-dazzled with the calibre of print jobs. 

The stories I collected are a testimony to "the power of print".

Print story one: A digital print firm with a raft of Xerox and Canons churned out 450 table calendars with wiro-binding on 300gsm art card in three hours.The same firm delivered ten lakh calendars in a week.

Print story two: A book print firm produced 13,500 copies of a 500-page book. This included a cover of 300gsm art board and the inner pages on 100gsm art paper with PUR perfect binding in a short time of 15 days; right from designing, typesetting to dispatch to Europe.

Print story three: Then there was a mid-sized firm who procured an order from a conference organiser who typeset the lecture after the show and gave it to the print firm by midnight. The print firm had to print it as a newspaper; tabloid-sized multi-coloured eight pages of 2000 pieces and circulate it with The Hindu and The New Indian Express. It had to reach the vendors by 6 am.

Print story four: A coffee table book by a boutique print firm in Western India. Right from content to photography was rendered in-house. The firm printed 15,000 copies, which elicited a good response from retail as well as the corporate. After the distribution of 15,000 copies, there have been re-prints of 6000 additional copies.

Print story five: Then was a catalogue of 500 copies for an Italian designer. The job was produced deploying manual screen printing on an 80gsm black Cordenons board. The catalogue was 110 pages with a case-making and a rigid box for the catalogue. The designer sent a fax. It said, "Ooooh la la la."

Print story six: A laundry brand required a top to bottom fifth panel on a carton job. It was impossible to paste an extra panel by automatic folding and gluing system as the panel would not be flat at the time of pasting. A company from Eastern India accomplished this job innovatively. It created a compensation round edge, calculated in microns, on the other side of the fifth panel to keep it flat while pasting. The converter said that it has applied for a patent for this fifth panel innovation. 

The incredible trivia is, none of the above print jobs have won the PrintWeek India Awards.

This year, as the 46 jury members testified on 25 September, the print calibre was outstanding.

I think the Awards are a step in the right direction. But as an industry and as a community we need to do a lot more.

Special thanks to the team at Podar Centre, plus Craig Buck. I doff my hat to my 3am buddy Rushikesh Aravkar, and his army of SIES Graduate School of Technology students for their love's labour.

As always, a super thank you to all the sponsors who have helped PrintWeek India embark on this exhilarating journey every year. And a special salaam to the team at Kala Jyothi who have been our print partners since May 2008.

See you at 7 pm on 6 October (Monday). The address is, The Grand Hyatt (Santacruz), Mumbai East.

If you cannot make it, then catch the telecast of the show on NDTV Profit/Prime channel, which will broadcast the Awards Night. Or keep tabs on the PrintWeek India website for live updates.

Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi will be the chief guest at the sixth edition of PrintWeek India Awards Night. The evening, as in the past five editions will have a formal sit-down dinner and a playful tribute to Mahatma Gandhi - the Father of Print in India.

To book your seats, contact Monica Rohra: monica@haymarket.co.in; telephone: +91 22 43025008.