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Research
IPPSTAR is planning to complete an industry wide survey of all the printing industries including publishing, printing, packaging and paper by 30 June 2002.

Partial funding for this research has been pledged by an Indian web offset manufacturer and by an American industry association. The survey require additional sporshorship from Associations, Financial institutions, Companies and Individuals. The professionally conducted survey provides industry wide consumption, production and commercial data and it will be published widely.

For more information regarding the Star Survey please contact us by email at starsurvey@ippstar.com or naresh@ippmail.com and telephone number ++91-0120-2540258 and facsimile ++91-0120-2540259.

R&D expenditure by Indian companies
12 February 2002

There is an article in the Economic Times of February 11 that summarised the CMIE data on research and development expenditure by Indian companies. It says that of the companies in the Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy's data base, only 561 companies have revealed their R&D expenditure for 00-01. Their total expenditure on R&D was Rs. 1,826 crores out of sales of Rs. 567,448 crores. Taken together, these 500 companies spend just 0.32% of their sales on research.

The largest spender in absolute terms was Telco with Rs 90.5 crores going for R&D, representing 1.1 per cent of the company's sales. Pharmaceutical and software companies by and large spent a much larger percentage on research and development with companies such as Cadila Health spending 7.9 per cent, Ramco spending 19.1 per cent, and Hughes Software spending 10 per cent.

Where does that leave the printing industry? Of course offshore wholly owned subsidiaries of Adobe and Quark may be spending some amount of money on research and development, as I am sure do local editorial software companies such as Summit, Sansui and CDAC, and probably companies such as Technova. Technova is generally looking to manufacture locally, new types of media for new applications although it has developed the Novadom plate as global product. Similarly, ink, adhesive, coating, and chemical companies spend on research to develop newer high performance and environment friendly products.

Companies that manufacture offset presses such as Manugraph and Printers House and Perfect Rotary also spend time, effort and money on research and development even if it is simply to either introduce automation features or to improve and simplify their manufacturing processes. Proteck Machinery is a company with outstanding research and development that always tries to incorporate new technologies. Many of the larger publishing and packaging companies also do some research and development but this has to be distinguished from every printer's claim that he is doing R&D every time he provides a customer with a proof or counter sample.

We propose to soon bring out one of the IppStar quarterly newsletters to discuss the issue of research, development and patents. Research can be in a wide variety of areas and meaningful input from interested companies is sought. It is not that research is not being done, but we need to discuss it more, and we need for the companies in our industry to also talk about it in their financial data and go to the next step of claiming intellectual property rights for their products and processes. This will play a big role in enhancing our brands and globalising our products.