Global Report: India

Ask almost any printer today which country constitutes an imminent threat to business, and the likely response is "China!" And while China is indeed a significant factor in the worldwide printing business, both today and for the future, another Asian country looms large as well. That country, India, is typically even less well understood than China, and all too often not seen as a factor in the print industry. That may be about to change.

In terms of geographical area, India is the seventh largest country on the planet—after Russia, Canada, the United States, China, Brazil, and Australia, in that order. However, in population, India is a close second to China, with 1.13 billion people, versus the 1.32 billion in China. And a higher birth rate should mean that India will out populate China in the near future.

Together India and China are home to more than 37 percent of the souls on Earth. In terms of sheer productivity—measured in per capita gross domestic product—both China and India are back in the pack: China ranks 107 in the world, and India comes in at number 154. Thus they are very similar. Both fall in the category of emerging economies. Both consist of a large land mass and a huge population. And while China clearly has a greater manufacturing presence in United States retail outlets, India holds an important, albeit less visible, place in the world of technology.

The Importance of English

Compared to China, India holds a distinct and important advantage. While 30 percent of Indians speak Hindi and the rest speak a variety of dialects, English is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication. Educated Indians invariably are fluent in English. In China, on the other hand, the basic language is Mandarin Chinese. Those Chinese preparing for the 2008 Olympics may be receiving a crash course in English, but Indians have been speaking it since the 19th century, when Great Britain effectively ruled virtually all of what is now India.

A significantly larger proportion of Chinese are literate—90.9 percent versus 61 percent of Indians age 15 or over who can read and write—but Indians have been learning English as a matter of course for decades, while Chinese came to the party only recently. Both countries, typical of emerging economies, have very low labor costs compared with those in North America and Europe. However, India has traditionally emphasized higher education, in a system which yields a significantly greater percentage of engineers and scientists than would be expected in a Third World country.

Graduation rates at Indian engineering colleges have grown at 20 percent per year recently. While the United States produces 70,000 engineering graduates annually, and Europe turns out 100,000, India produces some 350,000 per year—and these graduates focus heavily on software and newer technological disciplines.

Granted, the quality of Indian engineering training is often brought into question, but sheer numbers do count for something. And Indian accreditation agencies are hard at work to increase the quality of education on the subcontinent. Equally significant in the global economy are the 60,000 MBA graduates turned out each year in India.

Testimony to the importance of Indian technology workers to the printing industry is the Bangalore development center, maintained by EFI, where Indian engineers develop and maintain a significant portion of the company's Fiery server and controller line, as well as its Vutek wide-format printers and print business management systems. The more than 200 employees in the Bangalore EFI development group constitute the second largest product engineering group in the company.

The combination of native English and technology training has catapulted India into the entirely new field of providing overnight outsourcing in a variety of technology areas—printing included.

A 12-hour time difference from most of the United States makes India the perfect outsourcing center for technical work that needs to be done while North America sleeps.

Filling this demand are prepress services for printing companies, which simply transfer files electronically to India at the close of business and open press-ready files the next morning.

India has other advantages besides language, which are expected to make their transition into the global economy easier than that of China.

The country is the world's largest democracy, and has a long heritage of a rule of law based on the English court system, and the Indian banking system is stable. Disadvantages include an incredibly complex and cumbersome bureaucracy, and a lack of infrastructure such as roads, sewers, and water distribution. Still, Americans, Canadians, and many Europeans find it easier to work with someone who understands the English language and business customs, than to deal with the perpetually inscrutable Chinese. All this bodes well for the Indian economy.

Printing in India

Batik printing of textiles has been traced to the 4th century BC, and print blocks from the 3rd century AD have survived. However, printing as we know it was introduced to India just as it was in much of North America and elsewhere—by missionaries who translated the Bible into the native tongue.

The genesis of the Indian printing industry is attributed to Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg—a young theological student who was dispatched as a missionary to the Indian port of Tranquebar in 1706. He first translated Martin Luther's Short Catechism into Tamil, with Indian help, and then began work on the New Testament. Mr. Ziegenbalg appealed to an English organization, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, for a printing press, and in 1712 began printing religious tracts.

The growth of the Indian printing industry was hampered somewhat in the early days by difficulties typesetting the Tamil alphabet, and much early printing was done in German and English. But as the Indian economy began to grow, a printing industry emerged to support manufactured goods of all types.

One interesting case involves the parallel development of the match and printing industries in Sivakasi and Sattur, two municipalities in the Virudhunagar District of India. More than 4,500 companies in the district produce in excess of 70 percent of the matches and fireworks manufactured in India. As the match and fireworks industry grew in importance, a printing industry was established to support it, producing labels and wrappers. Soon, the printers diversified, and began producing books, posters, greeting cards, and diaries.

Today, some 342 printing companies offer their services in Sivakasi alone, and the area is widely known as a printing hub for the region. There are roughly 150,000 printing establishments in the country, primarily in the north (Delhi) and the west (Mumbai), but Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, and Kolkata are also important printing centers.

The industrial revolution occurring in India means the country has become fertile ground for manufacturers of printing equipment and supplies. NPES, the U.S. trade association of suppliers to the industry, opened an Indian office in New Delhi in 2005 to assist its members in penetrating this potentially lucrative market. Press manufacturer KBA has shown increases in Indian press sales over the past two years, and just two months ago announced that 35 medium format press units were awaiting shipment to India. Heidelberg, too, has seen significant sales increases in India, and is busy bringing computer-to-plate to the country.

India, it seems, is poised to become a major player in the global printing industry. When one considers the neighboring countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka have characteristics similar to those of India, the Asian subcontinent constitutes a market which easily has the potential to exceed that of China. Printers looking globally should definitely watch China—but they should also keep an eye on India.

Dennis Mason is the president of Mason Consulting Inc., a firm specializing in marketing and technology issues in the graphic arts and electronic industries. He may be reached via his Web site, www.masonconsulting.com.
Source: printingnews