Scope of Digital Textile Printing in India

India Rising

WRITTEN BY ADITYA CHANDAVARKAR | 11 JUNE 2010

ARTICLE PUBLISHED ON GRAPHIC DISPLAY WORLD

The market for digital printing technologies in India is moving out of the preliminary stages and is now beginning to gain significant momentum. A PIRA international report states that the Indian digital printing market is forecast to reach US$ 177.3 million (approximately Rs 860 crore) by 2012.
Digital printing processes, mainly based on inkjet systems, are also making inroads into the textile printing sector, where screen printing continues to retain a strong grip. However, in this financial year, some three or four digital textile printing machines are being installed every month throughout India. This shows an immense growth when compared to the last year and in Gujarat alone there is a huge demand from the textile industry towards a move towards digital print production.
The reason that India is poised to become a lucrative market for digital textile printing technologies is mostly due to the high trajectory growth of its apparel and textile industry. This is driven by the favourable demographic/economic factors such as the rise in disposable incomes and an upwards shift towards more branded apparel. This is reflected by the domestic textile and apparel market having grown by some 6.5% recently. Exports also show significant growth and are up by 12% growth with many international retailers looking at India now as the best alternative to China for the sourcing of apparel products.
There is still a great deal of work to be done to update printers in India more frequently about new products and new product innovations. Digital textile printing technology now needs to be adopted in combination with conventional screen printing techniques for it to ultimately succeed in India. Recently in Tirupur, the knitwear capital of India, a unique combination of a digital printing station and a screen printing machine was installed and this amalgamation of analogue and digital production is creating many new and innovative printing applications.
India needs more innovative marketing strategies from equipment manufacturers to help spread the awareness of the many advantages of digital printing technology to conventional screen printers. We also need more local digital textile ink manufacturers to improve their logistics and provide increased profitability to the printer.
If nurtured appropriately, digital textile printing in India will be a truly great industry to be associated with in the coming years.
Aditya Chandavarkar
Director Silversheen Inks & Coatings Pvt. Ltd.
agchandavarkar@silversheen.com
www.silversheen.com