Press Release New Drivers for the Indian PR Industry Association December 22, 2003 The Public Relations Consultants Association of India (PRCAI), the umbrella body representing all professional public relations consultancies in India, has elected its new office bearers for the year 2003. Tarun Deo, Vice President Asia Pacific at Text 100 is the new President and he is supported by Ajay Kakar, President Ogilvy PR, India as Vice President. Veena Gidwani, CEO, Madison PR is the association Secretary and Bobby Kewalramani, CEO Perfect Relations is the association’s Treasurer. “2004 begins with several challenges - most important of which is going to be our ability to maintain and build our focus on the Standards, Ethics, Expertise and Knowledge in the public relations industry in India. Our long terms goal is to move India’s PR industry to an international benchmark where it is seen as a strategic practice delivering tangible value to companies across industries,” said Tarun Deo. The other elected office bearers expressed their keenness in ensuring that the objectives of the association were taken forward and measurable results achieved during their term. The all member meeting at the AGM held on Friday took some major decisions such as establishing a full-fledged, stand alone office for the association with a full time secretariat team to run the administrative functions for the body. The association will also be launching several new initiatives for the membership in the areas of Training, Professional Practices and Professional Certification. Prema Sagar, PRCAI’s outgoing President while handing over the reins to Tarun, presented a quick review for the last 24 months, the highlight being; the association doubling its membership since it was launched in December, 2001. “PRCAI is now the de-facto PR association of Indian PR firms and serves as the central representative body of PR firms not just for India but for the rest of the world.” Other high points of the last year were Delhi hosting the first ever ‘India PR Summit’ in April, which was attended by over 350 participants & had 22 speakers - more than half being from overseas. Another first was the ‘Study on capability and maturity of the PR discipline as perceived by Indian clients’, which was made available to the membership and will be repeated in greater detail early next year as a key priority of moving PR services and its practice to the level to which clients in India want to see the industry operate. The PRCAI (www.prcai.org), mooted by a group of seven leading public relations firms, is a pioneering body that represents the over Rs. 1 billion industry, which employs about 8,000 professionals today. The PRCAI is the only industry body affiliated to the International Communications Consultancies Organisation (ICCO). For further information contact: |