This year’s edition of Print Summit marked a thumping return with 1,000 delegates in attendance. The day-long conference was packed with high-powered presentations. 

Among the presentations, Kedar Lele of Hindustan Unilever (HUL), kicked off his keynote by sharing how HUL, which has been operating in India since 1880, has been able to do what it has been doing for the last 130 years – 50+ brands, 9-million outlets, 3,500+ distributors, 21,000 employees, and managing 1.16- lakh tonnes of plastic waste.

Indraneel Chitale of Chitale Group traced his company's history, dating as early as 1950, and how under his leadership, the company has spread its wings across India.

Sudhanshu Mani of Integral Coach Factory, Chennai, shared his insights and the lessons learnt from the Vande Bharat project.

Ramaiah Muthusubramanian of Packfora asked the delegates to own the change. 

In a discussion with Ankul Nanavaty of Unik Printers, Ranesh Bajaj of Vinsak shared his mantra of “growth through change” for the commercial print industry.

Jinesh Mehta, of UT Pack spoke about how changes can be led in an organisation.

Print & Beyond conference was all about getting a common thread that ran across the presentations of four print experts, Narendra Paruchuri, K Selvakumar, Prof Rajendrakumar Anayath and Manu Choudhury, during the Print & Beyond conference, was to achieve a grand vision. It was relentless focus, vision and passion for their companies, and print, Jose Thomas, principal consultant at Future Schoolz, says in his report. 

P Narendra of Pragati Offset and Pragati Pack spoke about how India can rise up to the challenges of post-Covid printing.  

K Selvakumar of Lovely Offset Printers shared about his journey during his speech. 

“We have come to a stage where we need to think beyond ink and paper. We have to take pride that we became stronger and more influential as torchbearers of data, information and communication,” said Dr Rajendrakumar Anayath of DCRUST University. 

Kolkata- based CDC Printers shared how the company built its own system to achieve maximum productivity.

With Pamex 2023 taking place on 27-30 March, the March issue of PrintWeek contains seven pages of previews featuring 32 exhibitors, which provide a good indicator of where technology is heading.

The issue also features an in-depth interview with Ravindra Joshi, president, All India Master Printers’ Association, who sees an upside potential for the industry. “India’s steadfast domestic demand and rapid infrastructure development are insulating its economy from recessionary pressures. Indian consumers are also likely to have more disposable income. Consequently, overall consumption in the country could double from USD 2-trillion in 2022 to USD 4.9-trillion by the end of the decade,” he said in an interaction with Noel D’Cunha.

Meanwhile, Tushar Dhote, co-chairman of Pamex 2023 shared his experience of embarking on the journey of hosting roadshows to promote the show.

In other features, in an interview with Pranav Parikh of TechNova, we try to understand why he believes there is a huge potential in digital printing’s growth in coming times.

The issue also highlights the Annual Status of Education Report 2022, which reveals that while enrolment figures are above 95%, the learning gap for foundational skills has widened further.  

These and more in the March issue of PrintWeek.