Hands-on printer, editor, ethical consultant, and industry researcher Naresh Khanna, will be conferred the Viren Chhabra Print Leadership Award (VCPLA) for his work in the printing, publishing, and packaging industry in India over the past 49 years. The award is instituted by the AIFMP in the name of Viren Chhabra through a grant from his family. Viren Chhabra helped to unite printers and their organizations across the country and their national organization to gain global recognition in his role as an ambassador of the industry to world organizations and institutions. He was the founder editor of Printing Times, the man behind the fifth World Print Congress, and the first South Asia Print Congress (SAPC) in New Delhi.
The award will be handed over to Khanna, editor of the Indian Printer and Publisher magazine since April 1979 and Packaging South Asia since January 2007, during the Pamex 2024 show on 8 February. Pamex takes place from 6-9 February in Mumbai.
Naresh Khanna trained as an offset printer and IBM 360 computer programmer in the United States. Returning to India he was active in the movement to implement Indian scripts for computer-aided typesetting, worked as a consultant and trainer in the Indian print and newspaper industry, and was a visiting faculty of IDC at IIT Powai in the 1990s. His work includes helping print businesses adapt to and absorb new analog technologies in offset printing and digital technologies in typesetting, color scanners, retouching, and layout systems.
Credited with authoring a book called The Miracle of Democracy in India just after the emergency in 1977, the founder of IPP Services, Training, and Research (IPPStar), Khanna has worked as its principal industry researcher since 1999. Aspects of the IppStar research have been presented in Portland, Dusseldorf, Tokyo, and Goa. He was elected vice-president of the International Packaging Press Organization (IPPO) in May 2023 at Interpack in Dusseldorf.
The Viren Chhabra Print Leadership Award (VCPLA) is given to industry persons who have contributed to the development and growth of the Indian printing industry and the building of its community activities. The first two preceding winners are engineer printer Narendra Paruchuri of Pragati Offset and the educator Dr Rajendra Anayath.
Raghubendra Dutta Baruah, president of the All India Federation of Master Printers’ said, “It is a fact that by honoring a personality such as Naresh Khanna, the AIFMP is acknowledging the debt of gratitude which the printers of India owe to him.”
