Deepak Agarwal of Conway no more

Late Agarwal was a past-president of both the Bombay Master Printers Association (BMPA) and the All India Federation of Master Printers (AIFMP).

 

Kiran Prayagi remembers the time he spent with Late Agarwal in London as his colleague. “When he came to London he was under-19. Hence paid very low college fees, as per British policy. We enjoyed our time together while studying at the college in London,” he said. “Always cheerful and friendly, Deepak was a very down to earth man – no politics, no nonsense. He would appreciate his print colleagues, never spoke ill of them.”

 

Agarwal keenly followed international trends and kept himself abreast with surveys conducted for the print industry. In an interview with Ramu Ramanathan in 1998, Agarwal, then president of AIFMP, cited the GATF survey which focused on key printing industry trends. “Consider this,” he had said, “10.5% of the printers felt that clients were insisting on higher quality; 15.8% printers felt that shrinking turn-around times was important; 16.2% were very bothered by paper price and import duty for paper; 26.3 were trying to cope with shrinking run-lengths; 35.4 felt the trend was towards more colour, graphics, and complex designs.”

 

He had added that all but 2% indicated they considered it either “extremely” important or “very” important to the success of their business. “The general awareness of the importance of improving productivity is apparently high in the printing industry. However, this awareness is not translated into action.”

 

How much has changed in the last 15 years?

 

The print industry condoles the loss of a fellow industry colleague.