| The Indian Economy
at present is growing at a rate of around 6 to 7 percent
annually. The process of liberalization and economic reforms
has been accelerated as a result of full integration with
WTO. Also, increasing structural changes in the economy
have created a very positive atmosphere for growth.
India’s printing industry is growing
fast to meet the needs of its residents and its sizable
export market. This, in turn, has increased the demand
for printing inks.
As is the case with all Industries in India,
India’s Print Market too is indeed a unique market.
It has more than 5,600 dailies, 15,000 weeklies and 20,000
periodicals in 21 languages with a combined circulation
of 142 million. “Almost 325 languages are spoken
in India, and out of them 18 are official languages,”
The publication industry is booming, like never before
despite the increase in Internet penetration
Looking at the packaging side, Current commodities
packaged of overall goods produced may not be more than
10% signalling the latent untapped demand.
There has been increased use of packaging
in various industries, mainly the food industry..
With a population more than one billion, India has a tremendously
burgeoning middle class, which is a significant consumer
population. As more number of MNCs set up shop in the
country, there is growing emphasis on packaging. They
want to create packages at least equal to or surpassing
that of Europe and the U.S.”
This leads to calendaring and litho lamination
being used for consumer products. Corrugated printing
is done mostly by sheetfed offset, although as the duty
tariff has dropped to approximately 40 percent on machinery,
flexo is starting to gain a small foothold.
While the domestic market is expected to
grow at a compounded rate of 15 percent per annum, the
export market has opened new frontiers for the Ink Manufacturers.
If Statistics are anything to go by, Current
per capital consumption of Inks in India is 80 grams per
persons as against 300 to 400 grams in developed countries.
This itself is a direct indicator of how far we have to
go to be at par with the Developed nations in terms of
Ink Consumption.
All in all, Ink Industry as where we stand
in India is an exciting place to be in at present. The
vibrancy of the Industry is kept alive by not only the
fast pace technology changes but also the growing demand
for quality products.
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