Corporate Image Monitor

There is another interesting study on corporate image of top 20 Indian companies, a study conducted periodically by AC Nielson ORG-MARG.

Chandigarh is the Cleanest City

Chandigarh has been declared as the cleanest city in India, by a survey conducted by A.C. Nielsen ORG MARG, covering 18 state capitals, including the metros, on the basis of the opinion of citizens on cleanliness in their cities.
Chandigarh city emerged the best city with a score of 144, followed by Chennai with a score of 118 and Kolkata, with a score of 108. Others in that order are Bangalore, Bhubaneshwar, Lucknow, and Trivandrum. Delhi ranked 9th with a score of (99), which is below the all-city average of 100.
The city cleanliness survey was commissioned by Lifebuoy.

PR Events

On 2-3 August 2007:
Marcus Evans, Malaysia is organising a seminar on corporate communication at Mumbai. (There is special discount for PRSI members). Further details can be obtained from Mr. VAvinesh Nadarajan, Phone: +603 27236600, avineshn@marcousevanskl.com.

13-15 December 2007:
29th All India PR Conference is being held in Chennai, India. Further information can be obtained from Mr. R.K.Dharan, PRSI Vice President South, rkdharan@yahoo.com

PR at a cross-road!

Last week, while conducting a training programme for the senior officers of the PR department of a state Government, I came across some interesting queries as we discussed the subject of ethical practices in PR :

One, "what would you say since most of the news and the special sections for the state government's news that the media provides in their editorial columns is squarely dependent upon the government's advertising released to them? The state government has massive advertising budget running into crores that is dangled before the newspapers to receive 'positive' coverage. Isn't it 'news for money' policy?"

Two, "media relationship is a 'hate-hate' relationship. They abuse the government PR department and we also do not give a damn to them since we know that they would report what we want so long as the ads are released to them."

Three, "are the editors of the newspapers truly the journalists or the marketing men?" The last question cropped in contest with the recent cash prize of Rs.25,000 given to the editor of a vernacular daily by its management for bringing in more advertising revenue to the newspaper in the previous year.

Valid questions. Need to be mulled over.

CJ Singh
http://prsichd.blogspot.com/

Punjab Govt to Engage Private PR Professionals

The Punjab Government would formulate a policy to provide recognition to the PR Companies and private PR  practitioners  to insure their involvement in ongoing government’s PR activities, under Public-Private Partnership (PPP).

 Mr. Jagjit Puri, Secretary, Information and Public Relations, Punjab disclosed this while presiding over a seminar on Achieving Excellence in PR through IT Intervention organized by Public Relations Society of India, (PRSI) Chandigarh Chapter.  

In his presidential address Mr. Puri advised PRSI to  compile a directory with details of PR Companies working in India and  abroad  to help the PR Department to  use their services for media management in in other states or abroad.

Talking about long emotional attachment with PR, Mr. Puri recollected his memoirs when he was a University student and started his carrier as an Assistant Public Relations Man in some Private Company. He said that today the Information technology had totally changed the face of the world, all the borders and barriers had been eliminated and flow of information became very easy through internet networking. Mr. Puri urged PR practitioners to continuously upgrade their technological skills for collective interface with the media to reach out to the grassroots level. Mr. Puri also underlined various PR challenges faced by the state government for effective flow of communication. 

Col Rajesh Dua, General Manager, IT, Punjab Infotech in his key note address touched upon 4 step PR Process of Research, Planning~ Communicating and Evaluating. He gave detailed account of current technologies and their applications for strategic information systems. He said that managing a local problem, partnership between general, IT and users management is crucial and e-governance is not about transporting processes, but transforming processes. 

 Earlier in her welcome address, Ms. Renuka B. Salwan, Chairperson of the Chandigarh Chapter said that technological changes have a significant impact on communication and PR professionals have to adopt it fully. PR is an information related discipline and information data banks help in PR planning and strategies. On the occasion, she also announced to annually organize Dilgir Memorial lecture every year on his birthday falling in August.

Mr Charanjit Singh, Managing Director, Core PR stated that for achieving professional excellence, it is imperative to be competitive, ethical and truthful. For effective and efficient  management of PR campaigns ,   PR practitioners should  learn to use the entire range of communication tools available with them whether traditional or the modern ones like webcasting, blogging, podcasting, etc.

PRSI Chandigarh Chapter honours Vivek Atray with Award of Excellence

Chandigarh Chapter of Public Relations Society of India (PRSI) has selected Mr. Vivek Atray for the PRSI Award of Excellence for his contribution to the Public Relations.

 

The award was presented at the seminar held on "Achieving Excellence in PR through IT intervention" as a part of National PR Day celebrations here today at the Chandigarh Press Club.

 

Mr. Atray had been instrumental in professionalising the public relations in the UT administration and has immensely contributed to enhancing the image of the city and promoting it as a tourism destination through extensive use of effective communication techniques.

 

CJ

April 21 is the National PR Day

Heartiest greetings to the PR fraternity on the National PR Day.

 

On 21st of April 1968, the PRSI organised the first All India Public Relations Conference in New Delhi, and adopted the Code of Athens (adopted by the International Public Relations Association as the code of ethics for the PR practitioners), for the PR practitioners in India.

 

All those who wish to read the Code of Ethics and the Global Protocol on Ethics in Public Relations, can download from the PRSI Chandigarh Chapter website. http://www.prsi.in/code_of_ethics.htm.

 

As we observe this year, let us remind ourselves, that this day, the 21st April, is the annual reminder to update ourselves and at least read and understand the code of ethics enumerated for the PR practitioners, and adopt them in our lives to practice it truthfully.

 

CJ

 

April 21 is the National PR Day

Heartiest greetings to the PR fraternity on the National PR Day.

 

On 21st of April 1968, the PRSI organised the first All India Public Relations Conference in New Delhi, and adopted the Code of Athens (adopted by the International Public Relations Association as the code of ethics for the PR practitioners), for the PR practitioners in India.

 

All those who wish to read the Code of Ethics and the Global Protocol on Ethics in Public Relations, can download from the PRSI Chandigarh Chapter website. http://www.prsi.in/code_of_ethics.htm.

 

As we observe this year, let us remind ourselves, that this day, the 21st April, is the annual reminder to update ourselves and at least read and understand the code of ethics enumerated for the PR practitioners, and adopt them in our lives to practice it truthfully.

 

CJ

 

Mediation: The next big leap in judicial reforms

The International Centre for Alternative Dispute Resolution is organising a one-day conclave in Chandigarh on April 21.

 

Dr. H.R. Bhardwaj, Union Minister for Law and Justice shall inaugurate this Conference, with many judges of the Supreme Court of India, Chief Justice and other judges of the Panjab and Haryana High Court participating.

 

This is the next best option for the litigants to find prompt redressal of their grievances through out-of-court settlement. Already Delhi, and Maharashtra have set up the ADR (Alternate Dispute Resolution) courts.

 

The organisers and the participants at the Chandigarh conference look forward to having similar ADR court in the city.

 

CJ

International Conference on Innovative Tourism

The first international conference on Innovative Tourism begins on 21st April 2007. 

 

Some of the major highlights would be the focus on four major potentials of tourism, namely, medical, religious, eco, and adventure.

 

Chandigarh which is emerging as the hub of tourism activities, intends to increase the average stay of a visitor in the city to 3/4 days instead of using it as a mere transit base.  The attempt is to make it as a base station for the tourists to go around within the 200-300 km radius and visit other tourist locations.

 

The city itself has consideratble interesting sites, and great ambiance for everyone visiting the play to enjoy.

 

CJ

Big 92.7 FM is Number One

Chandigarh media scene is alive and throbbing, especially with the launch of two private radio stations, Big 92.7FM and MyFM 94.3, owned by Adlabs and Dainik Bhaskar respectively. The city had earlier had only one local channel of AIR, and last year saw the transmission of AIR Rainbow from Delhi through Kasauli transmission, adding zest to the radio buffs. Even the local AIR station had seen the advent of many private software producers for which the trend was set by RadioBuzz in November 2002, that provided some zing to the programmes.

And Chandigarh appears to be on the radar of everyone including the market research organisations which thought of moving out of the metro-oriented listenership surveys and explore the Tier-II cities. In March-April 2007, Mumbai based Indica Research Consumer Insights, which has numerous listernship surveys to its credit, conducted the research in Chandigarh across the age groups of 15-34 yrs ( male & female), households belonging to SEC A/B/C.
Obviously both the private radio channels, BigFM and MyFM scored a lead over the All India Radio Rainbow. And amongst these three, Big92.7FM has emerged as leader with 82 percent overall listenership.
Music being a key differentiator, BIG 92.7 FM’s music positioning has received the endorsement of Chandigarh with 81% of Chandigarh voting it the best on Music.. My FM has also received thumbs up for their music by 64% of Chandigarh, both scoring above AIR Rainbow in the parameter of most enjoyable stations to listen to with 77% and 69% votes respectively, which AIR scored 18 percent.
As to the popularity of the RJs amongst city listeners, for their distinct lingual flavour and persona, Pankaj, Meenakshi, Nidhi of BIG FM have scored the maximum votes to be the top 3 RJs of the City. MyFM’s RJ Khushi ranks 7th amongst the top 10s, while other being from BigFM.
CJ Singh . CorePR