In this month's issue, the special features are ITC: Numero Uno, Malayala Manorama plant visit, Interpack 2017 and more.

The PrintWeek India team has produced a timely WhatPackaging? supplement with news, views and Interpack preview and more. A must read supplement.

On page 20, we also put the spotlight on the newspaper market, as Ramu Ramanathan of PrintWeek India travels to Kerala to take a tour through the Malayala Manorama plant, a company known for its quality news and superior publications.

Print publishing is at crossroads. It has become necessary to automate. The most obvious reason is to eliminating the bottleneck and to improve efficiency on the shopfloor. In product talk, print technologist Priya Raju looks at Welbound’s seven-clamp PUR-ready perfect binder.

Predominantly an agro-based economy, Marathwada’s Latur and Nanded remain untapped markets. Priya Raju investigates.

Again, in product of the month, Priya Raju investigates how the Acercon camera-based register control system built by Kochi-based Asaies processes data in real-time to enable instant registration and minimised wastage.

The pulp and paper industry is characterised as water-intensive. PrintWeek India place the spotlight on the industry in order to understand the criticality of water and ways to improve its usage.

In Me & My section, Chitti Babu of Om Namassivaya in Vizag explains how the Ricoh Pro C9110 has enabled the company to print on a wide-range of substrates for different segments.

Also read an interview with Kunel Gaur and Sharon Borgoyary of Animal, an independent creative outfit based in New Delhi, which has created a niche for itself with its interesting portfolio, including last year’s Indianama exhibition showcasing independent India’s 69-year-journey illustrated by 69 artists.

Top brands share five trends that could disrupt packaging, an hour-long panel discussion on 24 February at the ITC Chola in Chennai after the inauguration of the Parksons Packaging factory at Sri City was a show of soft power. Sriraam Selvam reports.

In these very pages we have written about the growing rigid box market. Come 2017, has the market already consolidated? Not quite, but there are enough machines in the market to meet the current demands while the projected demands are yet to manifest. The converters are no longer gung ho about the future, but cautiously optimistic. Rahul Kumar and Dibyajyoti Sarma survey the scenario.