It all started after the First World War when the printers from Pune realised that they were facing many difficulties like scarcity of paper, ink and skilled labour availability. To address the issues, few visionary press owners congregated and established The Poona Press Owners Association (now popularly known as PPOA) on 19th May 1919, the oldest association of printers in India. Since then, The Poona Press Owners Association has been working with the motive of imparting print education for providing employment and supporting a common platform for coping up with dynamic growth of the print industry while managing disruptions in the print industry.
• Organizing printing and allied services: Setting up of printing and allied business organization for channelizing all research and development activities and better coordination among its constituent members.
• Promoting scientific techniques for arriving at the basic rates for various printing jobs: While framing the new constitution, the Association incorporated rules for discouraging the practice of giving arbitrary rates by some printers despite accessibility toscientific techniques for determining the cost and deriving profits on printing jobs since this was causing loss of trust among the clients and was proving harmful to the industry.
• Addressing issues hurting the industry: Sorting out the worries and doubtsthat were affecting the formation of the organization.
• Seeking cooperation from other associations sharing similar values and motives:In order to infuse energy in the industry, it was decided to collaborate with other business organizations and industry bodies in mutual interest.
• Nurturing individual aspirations and promoting industry growth: The aim was to manufacture printing machinery and equipment and make them available at economical rates, soliciting orders for businesses, pursuing development through innovations, and removing all official hurdles.
• Providing technological, legal or financial assistance to individual members: Back then, the society looked down upon the printing profession and so the Association decided to support ingenious, hardworking and enterprising members who ventured into the printing business against all odds. The association also felt the need to create a friendly ecosystem and make indigenous technology available to the growing industry.
• Dealing with conflict of interests among the business members and also between the businesses and the workers’ unions and sustaining a healthy relationship among all stakeholders: The Association gave due importance to establishing a cordial working relationship between the businesses and workers by encouraging the owners to use their goodwill and to also safeguarding the interests of the workers while pursuing higher output.
• Raising funds for the association: The Association foresaw the need to generate funds and create a corpus for supporting research work, printing schools, and production of printing equipment.
• Sharing industry information and framing business rules: Encouraging businesses to adopt latest technologies in block making, lithography, and offset printing, thereby minimizing their losses to outdated processes. It also made collective efforts in pressurizing the government for amending laws that were adversely affecting the business and also bringing about fundamental changes in the larger interest of the industry.
• Implementing the decisions taken to meet the objectives of the association:While framing the new constitution, the members of the working committee made provisions to enable the Association implement its rules and regulations diligently in order to prevent any unfavourable or unfortunate development that would show the industry in bad light.
According to two articles written by D.G. Devkule and published in the June and September 1941 issues of the monthly journal, twenty one years after its incorporation, the Poona Press Owners Association had a new constitution in place and began functioning according to the objectives and rules stated therein.
This new constitution had no precedence or reference whatsoever of any other peer association from anywhere in the country. Thus, it goes to the credit of the framers that the new constitution was accepted and remained as the guiding principle for many years without requiring any major amendments or changes.
Although the new constitution was prepared in 1941, it came into force ten years later in 1952 after the Association got its registration on 31st December 1951. The Association also had ‘Ltd.’ suffixed to its name to be recognized as the Poona Press Owners Association Limited. Thenceforth, the association exists and operates under the aegis of its new name in all official records and for all official purposes.