The national summit on packing held in Hyderabad stressed on packaging needs of tomorrow and advocated innovative packaging solutions for food, pharma and other allied products to enhance more shelf life, safety and marketability. The two day programme was organised by Indian institute of Packaging (IIP) from 6-7th November at ITC Kakatiya in the city.

According to AVPS Chakraborthy, Chairman of IIP, as new regulations and innovative technological trends are emerging, the packaging industry needs to incorporate them continuously to meet the needs of customers and regulators. At present the packaging sector is growing at about 12-15 per cent annually and major contributor to this is food and pharmaceutical industry. In India, the packaging Industry is estimated to be about $25 billion, while globally it accounts to be around $750 billion. The packaging industry in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh is growing at a rate of about 12 per cent and both the states are contributing near to about Rs.10,000 crore in this sector.  

With Hyderabad harboring large number of units in pharma, food processing, textiles, machinery, hardware sectors, the packaging industry in the city is expecting a vibrant growth in the future, informed Chakraborthy.  

The two day summit with the theme ‘Packaging for Tomorrow’ mainly focused on new trends in packaging, packaging regulations and other aspects related to the sector. The various topics that were discussed during the summit included package design, future prospects, convenient packaging in patient compliance, overview on food standards and safety regulations, packaging for emerging drug delivery systems, techniques in rigid packaging, innovation in transparent packaging, improving protection with high barrier material for critical molecules and innovative packaging materials for pharmaceutical products.

Other topics that were discussed include evolving global requirement for sustainability of packaging, life cycle analysis of packaging materials, regulatory compliance to meet the customer’s requirement, future automation, packaging testing and quality evaluation. N.C. Saha, director of IIP from Mumbai moderated a panel discussion on the topic ‘Make in India’. The panelist discussed on various challenges and opportunities in the packaging sector in the country.  Speaking further Saha mentioned that today India’s biggest challenge is collection and packaging of waste materials.

About 250 delegates from India and abroad took part in the summit.  Satish Reddy, chairman of Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Sanjeev Jagii, chairman, Vagish Dixit Advisor both from Conference subcommittee and Madhab Chakraborthi, joint director of IIP addressed the summit.