The PPOA, founded in 1919 was formed to counter a large number of problems plaguing the printing industry – excessive competition, pay hikes, among others. Raveendra Joshi, president, PPOA said, “The main objective was to make the printing fraternity tech savvy and impart printing education and research. The 100-year mark shows the progress made by the industry in Pune.”

The celebration was attended by Guardian Minister Girish Bapat, and Kotaro Yoshida of Toyo Inks India. The guest of honour was Dev Nair, past president, All India Federation of Master Printers. While addressing the attendees, Joshi shared the plans for the year ahead. He said, “It is going to be a very interesting and fun filled year ahead plus will be an educative year to come.”

Joshi spoke about PPOA’s project of bulk buying and selling of material like inks at discounted rates and passing on this benefit to the members. He explained, “This is the only module in the entire country for which we have collaborated with Toyo Ink for the past 11 years. We have recently renewed the agreement with Toyo for a period of three years till 2021.”

During the event, Vasantrao Gadgil was presented with a “Lifetime Achievement Award” for his untiring services to the industry over the last 70 years. In addition, women entrepreneurs were felicitated with “Yashashvini Puraskar”. The awards recipients included Jhanvi Dhariwal of JRD Print Pack, Aslita Kalaskar of Bits & Bytes, Kalpana Phadtare of Vihan Enterprises, Bhakti Gogawale of Bhakti Printers and Binders, and Vrunda Khurjekar of Shri Trimurti Mudrika Printers.