Ajay Mishra, Additional Chief Secretary, Govt of TS, inaugurates two day “National Conference on “Packaging ….Dynamic of the Path Ahead”

Hyderabad, March 29, 2019: The Apex body of the Packaging industries in India, Indian Institute of Packaging(IIP) – Hyderabad organized here in the city on Thursday its two annual flagship program, “National Conference on “Packaging ….Dynamic of the Path Ahead” at Hotel Grand Kakatiya. The two day meet attended by over 250 packaging professionals from all over India and abroad will be concluded tomorrow evening. Several Industry experts, keys players, policy makers, students and researchers, industrialists are participating in the two day conference. Mr. Ajay Mishra, Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Telangana State formally inaugurated the meet. Prof N.C. Saha, Director of IIP, RVS Ramakrishna, Vagish Dixit, Sanjeev Jaggia, Madhab Chakraborthy, Anil Reddy Vennum, SN Venkataraman several other industry experts graced the inaugural function. Addressing the gathering, Mr. Ajay Mishra said Packaging has been existing from time immemorial. Initially it started with containers to contain substance. Now packaging has become product itself. Paper packaing and bags were used 1000 years ago in Cairo. Then came metal packaging 200 years ago. Now it is plastics. Initially the packaging was natural, then processed material was used. Now plastics is used predominantly. Speaking further, he appealed to all the packaging professionals and experts to come up in future with alternatives to plastic based packaging materials. I know total shift from Plastics may not be possible. So put efforts to move to bio-degradable material. I know it is a challenge to industry, governments and society. Giving his welcome address, Prof. Dr. NC Saha, Director of IIP said the six decade old IIP is involved in Testing & Certification; Research & Development; Consultancy, Training and Education. In the last 34 years since IIP, the non-profit body that works under Ministry of Commerce, Govt of India has run 36 batches of 2years Post Graduate Diploma in Packaging and qualified 6000 professionals. IIP is the second organization in the world after School of Packaging—Michigan State University IIP currently has five braches—one each at Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. Soon it is also expanding to Kakinada, Bangalore and Gauhati, Saha informed. The Theme “Packaging—Dynamics of the Path Ahead clearly indicates that Packaging is not static, rather dynamic in nature. By it definition, the Packaging performs three important function which are called 3Ps—Protection, Preservation and Presentation. But, in reality, it performs many more functions like brand promotion, information about the products, its safety aspect and also acts as a tool for marketing, Prof. Dr. Saha informed. Marketing Guru Philip Kotler told 4Ps of Marketing---Product, Place, Price and Promotion. But, today, Packaging is considered to be the 5th P of marketing. The research work on Packaging has also established the 5D model of 5th P i.e Display, Design, Delight, Distribution and Disposal informed Dr. Saha. The total size of the global packaging industry is about 771 US billion dollars. Out of which, the Indian share is about 24.6 billion. USD. The Packaging industries globally are growing at 3 to 5% and in India 11 to 13%. The 80% of Packaging materials are consumed for food, pharmaceutical, cosmetics and healthcare products. And the balance is for other products, told Dr. Saha. Sanjeev Jaggi, Conference Sub Committee Chair told about four key indicators for the growth of packaging in future, which include, Trends, Innovation, Sustainability and Technology. Companies like Kodak, Xerox, Nokia and Ambassador who were once industry leaders to failed to keep pace with changing trends and they had to go out of the business, he shared. Vagish Dixit, Regional Chairman of IIP said Packaging is not Water Bottle and Shampee Sachets.They are much more and essential part of life today. From soft drinks to transfort Cadavar Organs(Organs harvested from the dead) for organ transplantation, Packaging is used. What is SKIN to body, PACKAGING to products. There is no inside without outside. Packagin is helping promote products and export. The today meet has six sessions and several Panel Discussion. Speakers from India and abroad were roped in. Some of the speakers drawn were from ITC Ltd, Nestle, L’oreal India; Harro Höfliger from Germany and ohers. The conference is organized in association with World Packaging Organization, The Asian Packaging Federation and ITC Paper Boards and Specialty Papers Division. The objective of the conference according to Dr. Saha was to give its participants the benefit and increase the awareness among the students, packaging professionals, exporters, packaging material manufacturers, the personnel in the Packaging developments, R & D in Packaging through this conference. India has over 22000 packaging industries. Most of them, almost 90 are MSMEs. Packaging industry is considered as the 9th top most industry in the world. Telangana state is very significant market for Packaging Industry as the state boasts of export of bulk drugs, fresh fruits and vegetables. Pcakging plays a significant role in transporting these goods. The per capita consumption of Packaging in India is lower than the global average, many multinational companies are attracted to Indian market due to the strong and long term growth prospects. India’s Packaging industry has been developing due to the growth of food retail and pharmaceutical industries focusing on domestic demand and export, shared Dr. Saha. The four Packaging dynamics have become a focus point for the industries to concentrate on. These include Sustainability, Innovation, Technology and Trends. These are considered as the most critical in the current context. The upgraded Technology on automation has also become the focal point for the Industries. The packaging industry is an enormous economic generator. Statistics indicate the world packaging industry’s market value will reach $1 trillion by 2020. The few packaging trends in the coming years Dr. Saha says include: we will witness reduction in packaging materials—thinner, stronger, slighter and simpler. Other trends that will sweep across the packaging industry would be Smart Packaging. Rapid printing. There will be more use of RFID Technology for electronic tagging, tracking of stock. Future will also witness more recycling products; easier recycling of packaging, higher percentage recycled materials will be new in coming years. Biodegradable Packaging will be big on the anvil in future. These include, Plastics made from starch, more use of cardboard etc will be witnessed. Another equally and growing concern is to produce space-saving packaging. For example, growth of square cartons for drinks. Another new thing will be Customer Returns Packaging. That is to improve in re-seal pouches to keep pace with huge growth of online ordering. For example, clothes where customers often order different sizes to try on and then return some of the goods ordered. Packaging industry has fast embraced next generation technologies. Over the last fifty years Packaging World has been transformed into a new world with lot of innovations, materials and technologies. IIP has been witness to all these changes. The conference enables its participants to know latest packaging innovations, contributions made by the leading experts.