Desh Sewa Rattan Award for Renuka Salwan

It is a matter of great pride for PR fraternity that one of our active PR practitioner, Ms Renuka Salwan, Deputy Director Public Relations, Bureau of Indian Standards, Chandigarh, and immediate Past Chairperson of PRSI Chandigarh Chapter, has been conferred the Desh Sewa Rattan Award yesterday at a function in Ludhiana. 

A four-decade old NGO, Shaheed Memorial Sewa Society at Ludhiana, conferred the award on eight women who have contributed to the society through their commitment and dedication in their field of work. 

Renuka Salwan indeed is a dynamic leader with determination and resolve, and as a professional has contributed immensely in generating awareness about the safety and standardisation of consumer products. 

We wish her many more winning innings.

Ravi Dara is no more

Many of us in the PR field would have heard her name or met with her at various PR fora. An energetic lady, and a great person that she was, was shot dead in her 19th floor room in Hotel Taj. I, who had known her so closely for the last nearly two decades, deeply grieve this loss.  And the grief is aggravated by the unprecedented mayhem that Mumbai has faced at the hands of terrorists, shattering lives of hundreds of families around the globe who lost their nears and dears. 

May her soul rest in peace. 

Remembering KR

I met Mr K.R. Singh - Kanwar Rajendra Singh to be exact - at the national council meeting of PRSI in 1989 and was greatly impressed by his clarity of thoughts and articulation. He was a multifaceted personality who could interact with anyone and everyone with ease and could discuss with you on any subject, whether it is the kind of wine he was drinking or the fish curry or the Indian diplomacy.
And I remember in 1991, he was the first sitting President of PRSI who agreed to visit the Chandigarh Chapter and address the members. I had gone to pick him up in a borrowed Ford from a friend, and the moment he was in till the time we got down at the hotel, I was better informed about the Ford's history and car's attributes.
KR was a respected journalist, having started his career as a staff correspondent of The Times of India. Later he was with Hindustan Times as Chief Reporter, and later published an English tabloid from Mumbai, 'The Daily' for five years.
He moved to corporate communication after joining IBM and also served as President of Birla Engineering Services, and later of Birla Medical Technologies. He was on the board of directors of three Birla companies for several years.
He was chairman and managing director of a Kirloskar Group company engaged in setting up of cancer treatment facilities in India.
He was the man in a hurry, but would enjoy every moment of his life. He would spend hours with his friends from PR fraternity till late evening, and one could find him up early in the morning ready for the day ahead.
The leadership he provided to PRSI, and the India Foundation for PR Education and Research, that gave me the opportunity to interact with him quite frequently, had been exceptionally memorable golden moments that I cherish so fondly today.
CJ

A legend passes away

The man full of verve, wit, and smiles...the legendary communicator...the former National President of Public Relations Society of India, Mr.K.R. Singh, passed away yesterday after a cardiac arrest. He leaves a deep chasm in every heart who knew him personally. His contribution to the PR profession had been unmatched...and we shall miss him.
We pray for peace of the great departed soul, and convey our heartfelt condolences to all nears and dears. CJ

National Media Conclave at Mt Abu

The two-day National Media Conference 2008 at Mount Abu, Rajasthan, India, was held on 20th and 21st September 2008.

You can read about the discussions at the conference and view pictures at PRPoint. Just click here to get the complete update on the Conference.

Dr. Kalam's Message to Youth

Our friend, Mr. Srinivasan of PRpoint met Dr Abdul Kalam, former President of India at Chennai on 24th July 2008. You can go to click here to listen to Dr. Kalam's message to the Indian Youth. CJ CorePR

India on the crossroads?

India is passing through a political crisis. May be for the time being. But it is great masala for all the TV channels which for the last two days have got a lot of fodder to munch around, and opportunities of "Breaking News" every hour of the day. Though India is passing through a crisis of sorts, it is time for our channels to 'make hay (the mullah) while the sun shines'.
Watching every Indian tv channel these days is an effort to find out what is the fact and what is the fiction, though for the majority of the viewers it is the entertainment value the channels are trying to offer.
What is the role of media in any national crisis? Mr Vijay Menon, former Secretary General of Asian Mass Communication and Research Centre, Singapore, in his Foreword to "Role of Media in National Crisis", writes, "The media, in the popular view, should play a healing role in times of national crisis. But there is a lack of clarity, leave alone unanimity, about that role.... The journalist is often in a quandry, torn between his professional duty to provide a true and complete account of developments or events and exhortations to temper candour with caution lest his reporting should inflame passions rather than cool them."
Looking at this definition one wonders how many journalists, especially on the electronic media, are really in a "quandry", morally, while reporting.
Let's think.
CJ

PR is not a substitute for truth

Last year there had been discussion on whether PR people lie and some of the senior PR practitioners at an international conference made no bone about the fact that 'yes they do lie on behalf of the client', that led to serious discussion on the issue, with many votaries for the business of lying.
Unfortunate indeed. Most corporates do not understand the need to be truthful, honest and ethical, and they run to PR agencies to white wash their image, who, again many of them, oblige with a smile.
As a firm believer in the ethical practice of all professions, and the dictum that Public Relations is NOT a substitute for truth, lays down the mandate for the practice of PR. It does not mean that the bad image cannot be corrected, provided the individual and/or the corporate is willing to learn and clean up its own act and adopt the right course of action.
The recent Hollywood release Hancock holds the message for the PR practitioners as well as the corporates. Here's a super hero who carries a bad image until he runs into a PR man, Jason Bateman, who helps him change his habits and his behaviour, and the good things follow...even attracting a positive media.
CJ

One of our members Paddy Padmanabhan very rightly pointed out about India's rank at 120 in the international ranking, and aptly mentioned about PR intervention.
It is time that Incredible India also wakes up to the reality of our times. There are numerous issues right from corruption, bureaucratic redtapism, injustice, poverty, health crisis, etc., that emanate from mismanaged communication. Living as we are in an interdependent world, and the good that the liberalisation process brought for the Indian economy, it is time to review and improve the situation further through re-engineering the old hackneyed systems of governance, and speed up the process of development.
The need is to communicate government's concerns and vision to all segments, horizontally and vertically, and roll out time-bound action plan, besides initiating the sensitisation process within the government machinery.
Even today, any corporate initiative is looked with suspicion and every possible hurdle is put in place where the formula of MBO-management by objectives (objections?) is seen in action. Lack of intra-departmental and inter-departmental communication where each works at tangent with maximum attempt to subvert any developmental process by hiding essential information from the stakeholders.
Despite the e-governance process being implemented the accountability factor in the government has yet to take appropriate shape.
Communication challenge involves putting their cards bare with all procedures and processes shared at one instance with defined timeline of approvals without which the responsibility shall never get fixed, and India shall continue to suffer in terms of its progress, and its image.

National PR Education Day

Global Forum for Public Relations has always been proactive in contributing to the knowledge of the public relations practitioners, and this time it has come up with another novel idea of designating 6th August as the National PR Education Day.
The day has been earmarked in honour of former National President of Public Relations Society of India (PRSI) and Editor of PR Voice, Dr. C.V. Narasimha Reddi, who turns 75 on this day.
Indeed a great tribute that we can pay to this great personality whose contribution to PR practice in the country is unparalleled.
The young aspirants who intend to adopt PR as a career are always at a loss to understand the nuances of Public Relations practice, primarily because of the lack of adequate literature, research, and studies on the subject in Indian context.
All PR practitioners are requested to send their ideas as to how we can perpetuate this day most meaningfully and contribute to the enhancement of PR educational resources.
Let 6th August be the Day of reckoning for all the PR practitioners, and chalk out plans as to how we would like to contribute to this cause for the next five years, to make PR education and its practice in the country to match, and even surpass the international standards, and establish benchmarks of its best practices here.
So put on the thinking cap and start writing back.
And wherever PRSI, PRCI, IABC, and other similar organisations have their chapters, must hold a meeting and brainstorm on the issue engaging the academia in this process.
CJ Singh, CorePR, Chandigarh

Global Forum for Public Relations: Awards function

GLOBAL FORUM FOR PUBLIC RELATIONS, the India International Association for Values and Ethics in Public Relations Profession, is organising an Awards and Felicitation Function at Hyderabad, on 18th July. Sri G. Vinod, Minister for Labour and Employment, Government of AP shall be the chief guest, and guests of honours include our very dear Dr. C.V. Narasimha Reddi, amongst various other dignitaries.

Rajayogi B.K. Karuna ji, Chief of Multimedia and PR, Brahmakumaris, Mt Abu; Sri Atluri Subba Rao, Former President, FAPCCI, Hyderabad; are to receive the Awards, while Shri Suraj Prasad Agarwal, President, FAPCCI, Hyderabad shall be felicitated.