Literary academies’ contribution to print fraternity

With a view to promote and revive consciousness about different culture and literature, various academies are set up in Delhi and all their works/initiatives have been commendable. To make these initiatives a big success, they need printed literature in varied forms. To explore more about their printing needs and requirements, P&P interacted with few personalities of these academies and here’s what they conveyed.

All the academies in Delhi have their own publications like magazines, periodicals, books, and promotional materials for events and activities. Considering all these as routine print jobs, there is surely a great demand of printing from these academies. On asking about the importance of print quality, Anis Azmi, secretary, Urdu Academy shared, “Every printed communication material always leaves a long lasting impression, so we make sure to have better printing for our promotional materials like invitation cards, flyers, pamphlets, brochures, information post cards etc.”

Amongst all these academies, the quantity of printing procured by Sahitya Akademi is much bigger. According to Dr K Sreenivasarao, secretary, Sahitya Akademi, they feel proud to bring out one book in every 22 hours and having one event or activity every day at any corner of India. “Our print requirements are really high in terms of quantities. We opt for different print quality as per the specifications of our product. As most of our publications are priced economically, we need to opt for the print specifications to match our budget for that particular job, whereas for our specialised publications, we always go for best quality,” he added.

Print Partners!

For regular printing needs, there’s a requirement of a reliable and trusted printerbuyer associations. All the academies have a similar process of inviting tenders and selecting printers. Academies like Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu have two-three printers on their panel whereas Sahitya Akademi has 20-printer panel across India. “We invite tenders for our printing needs and create a panel of printers for two years, which is common for most of the academies. If the printing budget is higher, we invite e-tenders,” shared Harpreet Kaur, publication officer, Punjabi Academy.

These academies have on their panel various printers ranging from small one to large set ups and do allocate various jobs appropriately. All academies keep good working relationships with their print partners. Quality of paper used in the jobs varies from newsprint to high quality coated paper. Processes of printing also comprise of screen, offset and digital.

Bottlenecks!

Printing is a specialized art, and it needs proper knowledge to understand the process and requirements. On asking about any bottlenecks, Azmi shared, “One of the major problems that we are facing is lack of Urduliterate staff at printers’ level. We often face problems in content and its development during printing process.”

But, one thing is clear – printed literature is a key to dissemination and spread of culture and literature and will remain till time immemorial!

“We feel proud to bring one book every 22 hours”
–says Dr K Sreenivasarao, secretary, Sahitya Akademi

“Urdu is not a language of Hindu or Muslim… It is a language of love, which will remain forever. And our literature is timeless, and it has to be produced in a way that adds value to our content.”
–says Anis Azmi, secretary, Urdu Academy

“We are proud of Punjabi literature…its larger than life. Our magazines and books are our tools to take our mission forward and we never compromise on printing budget, when it comes to quality production.”
–says J Dhawan, dy secretary, Punjabi Academy

“We are on a mission to save Sindhu Heritage, world’s earliest civilization. We are a stateless language, so our printed material means a lot to us and our generations to come.”
–says Sindhu Mishra, secretary, The Sindhi Academy

“Sanskrit survived all odds….so it will be there till eternity! And when we talk about our printed literature, its demand is always there that too all over the world.”
–says Dr Jeetram Bhatt, dy secretary, Sanskrit Academy and director, Dr Goswami Giridhari Lal Shastri Prachya Vidya Pratishthanam