The Tushar Dhote Column: The TOUCH centre experience, and celebrating Printers’ Day in Bengaluru

TOUCH is an acronym for TechNova Open University for Change. The centre was established in 1997 at Technova’s Mahalaxmi office.

It was conceived as a knowledge-sharing platform for printers that provided an understanding of the products and helped in its application to their field of work. Touch centre during those times was decentralized, and each manufacturing plant had its application centre in a place where the client could experience and tryout if the solution that would work for them at their shop floor, be it the CTP manufacturing unit or the media manufacturing plant where different types of media could be tried and tested before putting to commercial use in their presses.

Then there was a lull. Not much was happening at the TOUCH centre till recently.

In the background of its alliance with HP Indigo, TechNova realised it was necessary to centralise and bring the Touch centre to a new location near Turbhe, New Mumbai.

On 9 January 2023, the Touch Centre was inaugurated at TechNova’s Turbhe facility. Pranav Parikh, chairman, TechNova Imaging Systems and A Appadurai, country business manager, Indigo and Inkjet solutions, HP India, inaugurated the centre. The mission was to a centre that would give the customer a platform to create digital applications; try out firsthand digital print solutions using different media before deciding on ownership.

TOUCH centre – pushing the digital envelope

At the centre, Amit Khurana and Deepak Chawla of TechNova walked me through the centre, where the HP Indigo 6K digital press was ready for customers to explore interesting applications and business opportunities. “The whole idea is to share knowledge with the customer so that he feels comfortable adopting the technology,” said Khurana. “It is also a way for TechNova to learn from the customers their practical difficulties and important suggestions, which could greatly help bring change for bettering the applications.”

Parag Pimple of TechNova gave me a glimpse of the power of the HP Indigo 6K press. The machine could print labels, shrink film, foil, flexible packaging, and mono cartons. It could also be used for publishing. In the true sense, it was an example of ‘Convergence in Print’, the theme of Pamex 2023.

As technology continues to advance, many companies have had to evolve and adapt to keep up with the changing times. TechNova, too has evolved from being a plate and chemicals manufacturing company to a solutions provider offering a bigger gamut of services by handshaking with the likes of HP for a new and focused partnership in delivering the right solutions to its customer.

The growth in technology has created opportunities for new business models, products, and services. Companies that can leverage the latest technologies to improve their operations, products, and services have a competitive advantage and are more likely to succeed in the long term.

With that in mind, Pamex 2023 is set to witness several such solutions from TechNova and HP. We wish all the best to the TechNova team in their future endeavours, especially as they reach out to their customers to share knowledge and help them to make the right decisions.

Printers Day celebrated in Bengaluru

The roadshow at Bengaluru was scheduled for 24 February, the Printers’ Day.

The Pamex roadshow saw printers from Davangere, Hassan, Malanad, Tumkur, Udupi and Vijaypur districts join the local delegates making it a full house at the FKCCI Auditorium, the central venue of the event.

The enthusiasm of the printers from the smaller towns was infectious, and the elaborate traditional facilitations that each association carried out were a treat to watch. Raveendra Joshi, president, AIFMP, felt overwhelmed by the spontaneous affection demonstrated by the printers and remarked that the day would forever be embedded in his memory. Though the schedule of the conference went out of control, the celebratory atmosphere made it a truly remarkable Printers’ day.

The panel discussion, moderated by Amitabh Luthra of Printers Supply Co, was filled with wit and astuteness. Luthra managed to bring out the various aspects of convergence being practised by the panellists that included Gopi Ballarwad of iTek Packz, Denver Annunciation of Janus International, Suresh Srinivasan of Kamsri Printing & Packaging and C. N. Ashok of Autoprint Machinery.

The presentation by Pawandeep Sahni of Omet India received the familiar standing ovation. Ashutosh Tripathi of the National Centre for Flexible Electronics at IIT Kanpur managed to wow the audience as he took them on the wonderous journey of printed electronics.

Over to Haridwar

In my sixth Column, I shared the potential of print-packaging in Uttarakhand and how the print-packagers in the state have built infrastructure and adopted technology, which could impact the growth and development of the print sector. The roadshow will travel to its last stop at Haridwar on the 3 March, the last of the Pamex 2023 roadshows.

In the meantime, the online visitor registrations for Pamex are in full swing, and the invitations are already in post. Convergence is gaining momentum, and the industry will get its preview at Pamex 2023, scheduled from 27-30 March at the Bombay Exhibition Centre, Mumbai.

(Tushar Dhote is co-chairman of Pamex. This is the eighth in a series of weekly Tushar Dhote Columns, which will continue till the commencement of Pamex 2023 in Mumbai. In his next, Dhote will describe his experience of the Haridwar roadshow, the last of Pamex 2023 season. Stay tuned in…)