Offset Printers Association commemorates Printers Unity Day on 22nd October
13 November 2021: Offset Printers Association (OPA) has been celebrating Printers Unity Day every year and taking into consideration the present situation it was decided to celebrate the day in an online mode this time. An event like ‘Printers Unity Day’ holds special significance especially in a country as diverse as India which has the highest number of printing companies in the world (250,000). The aim of the event was to unite the printers belonging to different categories, regions, sizes and those working with different technologies.
Prof. Kamal Mohan Chopra has been instrumental in numerous activities over a decade that has brought the printing fraternity across the world together, so his birthday i.e., October 22 is commemorated every year as Printers Ekta Diwas – (Printers Unity Day) on an International Scale.
This year, taking into consideration the present situation, the day was celebrated on a virtual platform at 7:00 p.m. on October 22, 2021. The event began with brief networking questions by Prof. Anjan Kumar Baral, who introduced and invited the moderator, Prof TKS Lakshmi Priya for leading the celebrations. After a brief introduction about the purpose of the grand day and the significance of the date, she invited Parveen Aggarwal, President OPA and the person behind the event for his welcome address.
Parveen Aggarwal said, “Today is the greatest day for me to welcome the global print leaders, who are here to bless our novel project to observe ‘Printers Unity Day’ every year on the birthday of yet another equally important print personality, Prof. Kamal Mohan Chopra.”
P. Chander, President AIFMP emphasised on unity and said it cannot be achieved in a day. Dr Lakshmi Priya then narrated that the idea of celebrating Printers Unity Day came to the mind of Kanwardeep Sharma from Kurukshetra University who said that he had been following Mr. Chopra’s activities and had always felt that such persons must be honoured and made known to the entire world. One way, he felt was to celebrate the birthday every year.
Beatrice Klose, Secretary General, World Print & Communication Forum, Brussels-Belgium and Intergraf of the European Federation for Printers, said that Kamal is known by printers world over and his role as President World Print Forum is commendable.
Benny Landa said that Kamal is a visionary who is capable of making a vision a reality especially for training and education. In his message, Pranav Parikh, TechNova said, Kamalji’s selfless commitment and contributions to the industry are exemplary. Sabine Geldermann, DRUPA, Dussledorf, shared a video message in which she mentioned that Kamal’s attitude to bring all printers together is a trait that every country must take up.
The session concluded with an emotional thank you message from Kamal Chopra. He said “Let’s be together to help each other, to show that we are really ‘Proud Printers’ try to hold hands rather pulling legs, jointly we can succeed and conquer any challenge” The complete video recording of the meeting is available at: https://youtu.be/-Yv6hnAyCsY
