Hello

The conservative Economist has called the results of the Indian general election: “Good news: don’t waste it.” The subheading reads, “The voters of the world’s biggest democracy have given their government a precious second chance.” Many of our own business papers are debating whether the new government will go slow or fast on economic reforms. Of course they are in the main arguing for faster economic reforms.

The Economist’s leader adds in the context of populism and reforms – “Yet, some urgent reforms would be politically popular. To reform education or combat malnutrition, for example, the government needs to recruit, motivate and monitor millions of teachers and crèche-workers . . . In India it can take up to four years to fill a teacher vacancy.”

I quote all this above because it is rare to find e ven a few good words about India in the Economist. But the election and the prospect of a stable liberal government should not distract our industry from its own missions of creativity, independence and professional growth and the need to engage in education. We should look at helping to create demand rather than merely being beneficiaries.

More realistically, this newsletter has news of Ursula Burns succeeding Anne Mulcahy at Xerox, which makes us very happy. Other news is of HCL becoming a supplier across several segments of the digital printing business. There are also stories about the economic stimulus package for all exhibitors at Print09 at Chicago. This may be the chance for Indian manufacturers to give the North American market a shot.

Please advertise on our websites and in our email newsletters. You can contact at ads@ippgroup.in and +91-9999115816. European supporters should contact Michael Seidl at +43-6764109330 m.seidel@printernet.at.

Till next week, Naresh Khanna
editor@ippgroup. in