All about Awards, top print jobs and Drupa

India’s visitor tally of 15,000 is next only to the host nation, Germany’s 1,23,000. The exhibition kick-started a round of investments judging by the figures emanating from Heidelberg, KBA, HP, Canon and many other Indian deals.

With the shadow of the unfolding eurozone crisis; it is not encouraging for the Indian print player. The rupee is at an all-time low and the GDP hovering below 6% for the first time in years; after a weak Q4.

Some of these things will be considered during the Exclusive Conclave during the Canon presents PrintWeek India Awards on 30 August. This has been a request from our main sponsor and partner, Canon; as well as category sponsors Bobst India, GMC, Goss and SLKCG, Henkel India and Welbound Worldwide. They feel there should be deliberations on how to develop world-class printers in India who can serve both the overseas and domestic markets.

We hope to achieve some of this during a day-long closed-door discussion on 30 August at the Grand Hyatt in Mumbai.

This will be followed by the fourth edition of the Awards ceremony. We expect the Awards to be bigger and better in 2012.

As a step in that direction, we have replaced our Buyers Guide (now available as an Annual collection) with Top Jobs (a celebration of path-breaking print jobs). 

To spread the print message, my PrintWeek colleagues, Ramu Ramanathan and Sachin Shardul will begin a blog for print buyers. Print zindabad!