India is rapidly changing, and the packaging industry is beginning to change, too. I recently explored the corrugated market in Western India to see what has happened in the 10 years since my last visit there. I was stunned — perhaps in part because I couldn't breathe. The air quality has deteriorated so much in the last decade that New Delhi, depending on the day and time, rates as having the world's worst air quality.

After my business in Delhi, I was happy to grab a flight to Mumbai (Bombay), where the air quality is somewhat better because of the sea breeze, but the traffic is somewhat worse than Delhi's — if that is possible.

NMT Packaging's managing director, B.J. Purohit.

The Western India Corrugated Box Manufacturer's Association (WICMA) graciously hosted me. For many reasons (culture, language, infrastructure), India has been a very regionalized country throughout its history, and often its associations and businesses are similarly regionalized.

In meeting with WICMA leaders, I was told that India has close to 5,000 box plants scattered throughout the subcontinent in classic developing-country industry fashion: mostly fragmented and family-owned. My Indian colleagues considered about 200 or so of these box plants to be up to "Western standards" — about half of these are in western India.

Storage before the rainy season.

The industry leaders who make up the volunteer leadership of WICMA are well-traveled, progressive businessmen, poised to convert India's converting industry to modern standards: Pankaj Shah (Supack International), Deepak Killawala (Boxcraft India), Pradip Bosmaya (Falcon Box), Bharat Parekh (WICMA), B.A. Shah (Saurashtra Corrupak), and others assisted me in understanding the changing industrial scenery that is today's India.

NMT's box plant office.

WICMA is the largest of the regional associations, and belongs to a loose federation of all of India's regional groups: the Federation of Corrugated Box manufacturers of India (FCBM). Many of these groups sponsor regional shows and have headquarter offices. WICMA's headquarters has a seminar room, library, and several staffers who coordinate the activities. I was on tap later that evening along with Marshall Wiseman, of Michelman, to speak to a group of about 50 corrugators from around India at WICMA headquarters.

A good number of the workers are women.

Another major group in Mumbai dealing with converting is the Indian Institute of Packaging. This degree-granting institute has a campus of about 10 acres in downtown Mumbai. In addition to hosting courses at several levels, it runs testing for hire in a modern testing lab facility. Some of the graduate students and professors also conduct research on packaging performance. Their programs cover all forms of packaging, and TAPPI has worked together with IIP to host extrusion coating and other flexible packaging courses. IIP is part of the International Packaging Organization network, of which corrugated is but one segment.

The cutter inside the plant.

Before speaking at WICMA to Indian corrugators about East versus West corrugated, I needed to reacquaint myself with the situation on the ground. WICMA arranged for me to visit a box plant typical of the region in the village of Vada, about 60 km from Mumbai (not far as the crow flies, but at least two hours through Mumbai traffic).

An example of JIT output in the plant.

Years ago when I had traveled through the countryside of India, I became accustomed to great traffic delays because of animals — mainly cows — in the road. There were no more cows in the road, I'm happy to report. However, where there was once a cow, there are now about 1,000 diesel-spewing automobiles in its stead. I'm not sure how the carbon emission count works out on that exactly (cow flatulence methane vs. unburned diesel hydrocarbons), but either way it can't be good.