MMS president’s clarion pitch for print betterment

"Lifetime Achievement Award is an honour bestowed upon big achievers, an honour which will inspire our fraternity to do more," said Virkar.

 

This year MMS honoured Gautham Pai of Manipal Technologies, a young achiever and a trailblazer third generation of entrepreneur in his family.

 

On the occasion of Printer’s Day, Virkar said, we remember Johannes Gutenberg as our raison d'être, the very reason for our existence. “This industry has given us a respectable profession which is directly connected to education and learning. Today our industry has broadened its wings beyond print and includes media and communication and all these different fields are now inseparably entangled with each other,” she said.

 

For the benefit of the Hon’ minister, Virkar introduced the august gathering of printers, who were present. These CEOs represented print associations from The Bombay Master Printers Association, The Printers’ Guild, Nagpur, IMPACT Thane, Pune Press Owners Association, Thane Jilha Mudrak Sangh, Dombivli Shahar Mudrak Sangh, Panvel Mudrak Sangh, Indore Master Printers’ Association, Vadodara Master Printers Association, Ahmedabad Printing Press Association.

 

Maharashtra Mudran Parishad which is composed of 36 affiliates; and the All India Federation of Master Printers representing 56 affiliates  nationwide was also present there.

 

The gathering consisted of a mix of mostly small and medium scale printers and a few large-scale companies across all segments of graphic arts industry, which is printing and publishing of all kinds of books; commercial printing, which include printing of all kinds of publicity material, packaging, wide-formats and point-of-sale material, and using traditional offset technologies, digital technologies, screen printing, and the whole gamut that goes with it. “We have here a wide representation of the printing and allied industries,” Virkar said.

 

Virkar continued, the print industry in Maharashtra has grown, and matured, embracing and absorbing new technologies and delivering excellent quality. “Entrepreneurs form the backbone of Indian print business Even the largest of large print companies in India are family-owned, entrepreneur driven companies. Some of the presses today are first, second, third  or even fourth generation printers with a great appetite for risk. The print industry is highly capital intensive and makes a continual demand on finance for land as well as for machinery and technology. The industry has potential to do far more than it is doing now.  While some companies are going the traditional way with technology others are trailblazers, creating their own new paths with a highly innovative mix and match in technology and services.”

 

Virkar said, that the print has the potential to contribute towards the country’s exports. “Some investment in the right direction and a little helping hand by way of effective government policies will take us a long way.”

 

Virkar believes that print industry in Maharashtra is dogged by a few challenges, which with a helping hand by way of effective government policies will take the print industry a long way.

 

Labour problems

Virkar lamented and said that in the last two years, about eight to ten presses have closed down largely due to politically motivated union activities. “The workers never had a problem with their owners but were instigated to join an outside union who does not understand this industry.”

 

The print industry operates in a highly competitive environment and an unreasonably high increase in cost of production makes its survival even more difficult.  “Ours is an organised industry and our workers are paid in keeping with the Minimum Wages Act, more in case of skilled and semi-skilled labour. There are cases of harassment by labour unions. Our industry now needs to be protected by government as survival of some of these presses are at stake.

 

The Press Act of 1887 was framed by the British to keep a tight control over the content of the newspapers. “The same law puts us printers at risk today. Such archaic laws where printer is held responsible for the content of what he prints, leading to legal tangles, need to be repealed.  When we are not expected to even proof check what we print, how can we be held responsible for the content?

 

Virkar urged the minister to help and guide the print association in bring about changes in the outdated laws, and set the ball rolling.

 

Quality power

This is another area which Virkar dwelled upon. “The print industry needs reliable quality power without surges and spikes as our machines are delicate and expensive and have electronic components and cards. We hope this will be looked into not just for around Mumbai but in the rest of Maharashtra as well.

 

Industry status to the print industry

As of now our biggest problem is that we do not have the recognition of industry, said Virkar, stressing on the reason why it was necessary. “There is never a mention of the print industry in either the national or state budget. It is as though we don’t exist. There is no ministry for us even though we are such an important industry. So we do not know with whom we should take up our problems.”

 

Virkar suggested that the government allow one person from the print fraternity, to represent it in Vidhan Parishad. “If teachers, graduates, lawyers have their own constituency, can printers not have one,” questioned Virkar. “After all, our industry is so closely connected to education and learning.”

 

Virkar informed the gathering that the MMS will make a representation and send it to the government of Maharashtra very soon, and hoped to received the minister’s support and guidance. "The minister for industries of Maharashtra promised to call us for a meeting within one month to discuss these issues and more."