The Naraina industrial area in western Delhi has the same potholed roads and chaotic traffic and dust as all the other industrial areas in Another Delhi printing family realizes its ambition of technological upgradation

“The journey has been a challenging one to reach this level where we can count ourselves among the leading printers in the Delhi NCR region and we are catering to every sector — tourism, automobiles, book publishing, and heavy industries. We have been able to achieve all this due to our strong belief in adopting modern technologies. We have moved from older to better and from better to the newest machines to serve our customers to our best. We believe that new machines are the best for our customers and also for us.” Dharam Vir Jain

By Dhawal Kumar

The Naraina industrial area in western Delhi has the same potholed roads and chaotic traffic and dust as all the other industrial areas in the national capital region. However it houses many of the print businesses that migrated from the crowded by-lanes of the old city and worked from proper industrial structures in New Delhi's planned industrial estates for the first time. It's another matter that these industrial areas are a chaotic mixture of kuchha roads, pollution, slums, and erratic electricity. In spite of these and other hurdles the Indian print industry is amongst the fastest growing and technologically advanced in the emerging economy.

(Left to right) Praveen Sagar Jain, Dharam Vir Jain and Vinay Jain in front of their brand new Heidelberg CD102 4-colour press

Other industrial areas in the city and large purpose built plants in Noida and Gurgaon overtook Naraina in terms of investment in new plants and equipment over the last two decades, but there has been resurgence in the area in the last three years. There has been a tide of new and automated multi-colour presses being installed by both its first and second-generation print businesses. It is in Naraina that the third generation printers have also come into play.

Amongst the second-generation print businesses (with the third generation sent for technical training) that have been a part of the printing industry boom in North India is Paras Offset. With 60,000 square feet across its two Naraina plants and more than 150 employees, the ISO 9000 company has distinguished itself in the local commercial print market and has also begun to export printed calendars and books among other products, to clients in Europe and North America.

Paras Offset was started by Muni Lal Jain in 1969 and is now run by his four sons – Gun Sagar, Praveen Sagar, Dharam Vir, and Vinay. At our meeting the sons recounted, “It was in 1969 that our father Shri Muni Lal Jain established our first press in Gali Barna, Sadar Bazar, New Delhi. At that time it was known as Parshva Offset. We shifted to Naraina in the year 1998 after we turned private limited. At that time also we had our own processing set up with a scanner and brand new Dolev 4-Press imagesetter.”

Dharam Vir says, “It was after finishing our studies from Delhi University that we brothers joined our father. Our eldest brother Praveen Sagar Jain joined him in 1974. In 1978 I joined the team and in the year 1981 our youngest brother Vinay Jain joined the organization.”

He further recounted, “We were among the first in the Delhi area to install a 13 x 17 inch Romayor press in 1969. In 1981 we purchased a brand new Dominant, which we put at our GT Karnal Road plant. In 1983 we bought a Dominant 2-colour press and in 1988 a 4-colour Solna. In 1993 we bought a used KBA Planeta P44. In 1997-98 we phased out the Dominants and had four P44 4-colour machines. So you can see how we have evolved technologically over the past four decades.”

“Given our resources, we have always adopted the latest technologies. In 1992 we opted for computer controlled automated presses and in the 2005-06 financial year we added an almost new automated KBA Rapida 5-colour press. This year we have achieved our ambition of installing the best technology available with a brand new fully loaded Heidelberg CD102 4-colour press.”

The Jain brothers say that visits to international events and exhibitions, both as technology buyers and as print exporters, have helped them modernize. Regular visitors to Drupa, Ipex, and the Frankfurt and London Book Fairs, Paras will send an eleven-member team to the upcoming IPEX South Asia in Greater Noida this month.
“The international exhibitions with their wider spectrum and better organization have helped the Indian printers a lot,” says Praveen Sagar Jain. “It was in China that I received a good exposure to hard-case binding and I was impressed with that.”

Generation next
Mr. Dharam Vir Jain spoke about the company's recent ISO 9001:2000 certification. “This certification awarded to us last month has helped us in setting newer targets for our organization and now we are planning to move to bigger and greener space in the outskirts of Delhi. It is right now just in planning stage. We are soon going to purchase CtP, and we would be putting more thrust on binding (hard and soft case) and post press. We need to build a new purpose built plant to meet the growing demands of our Indian and international customers.”

Dharam Vir's son Aditya is studying electronics in the United States and is likely join the organization and strengthen its international operations. Vinay's son Vaibhav is studying industrial production at the TA Pai Institute in Manipal and in the years to come should become a key asset to the family print business. Paras Offset is very similar to many other second and third family owned print businesses in India right now. They have worked hard over the years in very difficult circumstances but have had a great deal of self-belief and a desire for technology and modernity.

Now that the Indian economy is very strong the third generation is enjoying the kind of education that only forward looking families can give to their children. Moreover Paras Offset is one of those family print businesses that has understood that it has to become a fast growing, technologically advanced and completely quality conscious organization not just for its customers but also to retain the enthusiasm and interest of its next generation.