The show, which happens every three years and held its latest edition last week in New Delhi, this year hit 1.07 million square feet of exhibition space, making it what it claimed was the third-largest plastics show in the world. That would trail only Germany's K Fair and the Chinaplas exhibition, organisers said, and surpass shows in the US and Japan.
But Goel said Plastindia continues to be stymied because the 30-year-old trade fair complex where it is held, Pragati Maidan, is the only one in India capable of hosting the event.
He also called for organisational changes within the foundation to better support the show.
"We need to bring in some structural reforms," said Goel, who is stepping down from his three-year term as president, a volunteer position. "This is not a sustainable model, the way that the Plastindia exhibition is organised."
Goel, who is also vice chairman and managing director of Indian multinational plastic packaging firm Essel Propack in Mumbai, said those changes should include more staff and streamlining the organisational structure.
"The structure that has been put in place, this was valid for some years, some editions, is it still valid anymore?" he asked. "I have my serious doubts."
Goel declined to offer details, but he believes support is growing within the industry for changes.
"I think it can be done," he said. "There are more and more people thinking like this. I only hope the committee members who are there, the majority of them I can persuade them to think that way."
One of the key challenges for the show is the age of the Pragati Maidan fairgrounds, he said.
"The fact is that the major problem is in India we don't have any other alternative to Pragati Maidan," Goel said. "This was built 30 years ago. Thirty years ago things were different, the way of thinking was different, the objectives were different, and it has not undergone the change."
He said the current government would like to upgrade the facility, but it is a big task.
The financial health of the show is important to the Indian industry's broader efforts to modernise, being a major source of the $6m (£3.8m) the foundation plans to use to jumpstart its Plastindia International University project for training engineers, he said.
