sandeep goyal founder and ceo sanex packaging connections pvt ltd on the new areas in the packaging industry packaging has always been seen as the integral part of any product be it food pharmaceuticals machinery automobiles and so on it is not known for research and development packaging has been more looked at as a container for the product till a decade back now with organised retail and urbanisation packaging is seen more as a value addition to the product as well as brands the emerging trends which are changing the packaging market in india include change in demographics growing middle income and rapid urbanisation factors like health and wellbeing safety and sustainability convenience and conspicuous consumption onthego lifestyle concerns about product safety and security growing ethnic diversity and ageing society are also contributing to the change industry status the packaging industry worldwide is one of the fastest moving with us 395 billion in 2010 and is estimated to grow to us 460 billion by 2015 this shows a positive growth for the packaging professionals across the globe as per pira food packaging is the largest segment accounting for 51 of the total market at usd 202bn beverage packaging accounts for 18 followed by six per cent for healthcare and five per cent for cosmetics packaging for healthcare and cosmetics is experiencing good use category at 45 per year until the year 2015 growth areas international brands which are coming to india have played an important role the shelf war at the retail is taking packaging to newer venues for exploration innovative packaging has become the talk of the industry also sustainability and ecofriendly packaging has come into picture with increasing usage of packaging and this is going to be marking a major difference in future packaging skillsets required as this is a highly specialised field a basic education in packaging technology is a must along with this is required a high level of hard work dedication belief in the work patience and self belief remuneration unfortunately remuneration has taken the highest priority over job satisfaction and work experience which can definitely not be the torch bearer for freshers as a fresher the main focus should be on gaining as much knowledge as possible a strong and longterm career plan is required hopping companies and profiles just for extra perks may not bring the real winner in you like every growing industry packaging also has lot of challenges and disparities there are not much standard remuneration structures available as per one of the surveys done by us online the data clearly showed that the starting salary may vary between rs 2 and 4 lakh with experience and added skill sets during onjob training and projects handled remunerations may increase as you move up in career there are also great opportunities to turn into entrepreneurs as told to aaditi isaac