Big Task, says Business India on PRCI

From Business India, April 27-May 10, 2015

YouTube Video Links to be watched!

Watch some recent Global Communication Conclave snapshots in a filmi format on YouTube – PRapport.

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Editor

Press Club awards for Prannoy, Arnab

The Press Club-Mumbai will felicitate NDTV’s Dr Prannoy Roy and Srinivasan Jain and Times Now’s Arnab Goswami along with 25 other journalists at its annjual Red Ink awards on Thursday.

Dr Prannoy Roy, Executive Co-Chairman of NDTV Group, has been awarded the 2015 RedInk Award for Lifetime Achievement for Excellence in Journalism for his consistent and pioneering contribution to news television in India, a statement by The Press Club said today.

Dr Roy will be honoured for his service to journalism at a glittering ceremony on Thursday, 30th April in Mumbai at the Jamshed Bhaba Auditorium, NCPA.

Dr Roy along with his wife and journalist Radhika Roy in 1988, were the first to set up a television news production company called New Delhi Television, now called NDTV. In later years, Dr Roy made a mark for his incisive and pioneering coverage of election news and changed the way people consumed TV news with his ground-breaking programmes such as ‘The News Tonight’ and ‘The World This Week’.

After years of producing the news for Star News, Dr Roy launched his own broadcasting network with NDTV 24X7, NDTV India and other channels in 2003. NDTV, one of the largest news networks in the country today, has set up benchmarks for good, ethical and no-frills news coverage.

The RedInk Award for ‘Journalist of the Year’, instituted for the first time, has gone to Sreenivasan Jain of NDTV for his consistent investigative work epitomized in his series ‘Truth versus Hype’ and other programmes. Arnab Goswami,

Editor-in-chief of Times Now, was selected as the ‘Impact Editor’ of the Year for his ability to capture eyeballs and expand audience reach with his ‘News Hour’ show. Scroll.in will be awarded the ‘News Start-up of the Year’ for scaling up its influence rapidly as an alternative source of news and features.

Judging for the RedInk Awards, which includes as many as 10 categories have just been completed, and as many as 24 journalists who have produced outstanding and impactful stories in calendar 2014 will also receive awards along with Dr Prannoy Roy, Sreenivasan Jain, Arnab Goswami and Scoll.in on 30 April at the NCPA.

The judging process proved to be a herculean task with over 800 entries in the print/online category and nearly 250 stories from television journalists. Each of the categories – politics, crime, environment, sports, human rights, etc – had a dedicated jury of senior persons with domain knowledge assigned to judge the entries. A special curator was also assigned to sift the large number of entries in each section and guide the judges. 

The judging process brought in well known names such as Harsh Mariwala, chairman & MD of Marico, for the Business category, Dr Kiran Shaw Mazumdar, head of Biocon, for the Health & Wellness category, former Mumbai Police Commissioner M.N.Singh & Justice Kode for the crime category and Sudanshu Vats, CEO of Viacom18, for the ‘Entertainment & Lifestyle’ stories.

Star India is the Presenting Partner for the Mumbai Press Club RedInk Awards for Excellence in Journalism 2015. Other Award Partners include Aditya Birla Group, Indiabulls Housing, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Zee Entertainment, Eros International, SevenHills Hospitals, Lunkad Investment and JSW Steel.

Media and communication partners for the RedInk Awards include exchange4media.com, MxM India, Adfactors, MSL Group India, Integral PR and Concept PR.

The RedInk Awards, now in their 5th year, has grown in stature over the years attracting entries from all over the country. The Awards have been set up as peer and professional recognition for path-breaking stories; and to encourage good, ethical journalism that impacts people and society.

From the President’s Desk-3: Well begun, Half Done!

Friends,

Thank you very much for all your support and critical views as well over the past one month or so.

The new team at NE has taken quite a few initiatives lie launching the e-mag which has become immensely popular in India and abroad. We have already clocked over 2,000 page views across the world. Here are the stats.

India – 1,117, United States – 786, Germany – 71, United Kingdom – 15, France – 6, Ireland – 6, United Arab Emirates – 5, Turkey – 5, Canada – 4 and Russia - 4.

Let me acknowledge that Mr Narendra's weekly columns with his insight on the functioning of the government are becoming extremely popular!

Now, our web site – www.publicrelationscouncilofindia.com - is almost ready. It has taken quite a bit of efforts in collating information and putting it together in a presentable format. Our young breed of web designers is still working to fine tune the site. As you can make out the lists of TEAMS is still incomplete – that’s mainly because we do not have relevant data. Will send a separate mail on what’s missing out in the list. 

Now, for the future calendar:

Knowledge Forum: In association with the Press Club Mumbai, we planned a discussion on the burning issue of Net Neutrality in the first week of May. Mumbai Chapter President Ajay Sharma and Secretary Sanjay Rammoorthy are working on a discussion paper. And together with the Club, we hope to have some good speakers.

Other City chapters may try to find similar forums – Kochi with the local Press Club. We can also tap Lions or Rotarians to align our Knowledge Forum with their events. This will help us spread our network.

Communicators’ Day: Bengaluru Chapter has been celebrating Communicators’ Day during the week of May 16 to 20. Suggest all chapters do the same and plans events, involving PR and media professionals.

Suggested theme: Communicators as Whistle Blowers.

Frankly, I got the idea from Mr S Narendra’s column – Political Sandwich – called in the e-mag.

These pointers may be used as discussion paper and in mails to participants. Bengaluru is working on this so is Mumbai.

Ø  Corporate Communication professionals ought to be in touch with all departments within their companies and hence in the know of developments. While communicating to the external world on their respective company's transparency and adherence to principles of corporate governance, they should make sure that what they speak is truth.

Ø  Corporate communication professionals should be able to alert top management about any violations and discrepancies.

Ø  Early alerts could help seal gaps and take corrective steps before the situation blows up into a crisis or a scam.

Ø  Managements/promoters on their part should not use  CompuCom teams to suppress negative developments or as mere fire fighters.

Ø  On the contrary, with media contacts and 'leaks' of information by competition or authorities like the Income Tax or Excise, corpcom teams do get to know about potential negative stories that can ruin the companies’ reputation.

Ø  Instead of acting in the last minute to do damage control, it is important to take appropriate action and nip the crisis in the bud.

Ø  In today's cut-throat competition, one cannot suppress or kill negative stories.

Ø  Managements need to understand this.

Ø  So, the question is: Whether we as corpcom professionals are ready to take up the challenge of turning into informal Whistle Blowers within our companies or with our clients?

Ø  It’s a new role for us. Let's debate now and prepare for future shocks!

At the end of discussions across PRCI platforms, we intend to bring out a White Paper for further action by Industry and Business Forums.

It is a sensitive issue. But let’s take the bull by the horns and demonstrate to the world that we mean business, serious one at that!

Delhi Chapter: The committee appointed by the Chairman Emeritus and Chief Mentor has started action towards forming a new Committee under the leadership of Dr Gaganjit Singh, President, IMM. We hope to have the new committee functioning shortly.

More as we go along.

Please give feedback on these and the issues that we discuss in e-mag. This will only help us do well, as a team.

Till then….

An invitation to join a movement called PRCI!

www.publicrelationscouncilofindia.com

Over the past 10 years, Public Relations Council of India (PRCI) - has established itself as The pioneer communication professionals’ body in the country.

With 25 chapters and over 3,400 members drawn from PR, HR and advertising professionals and academicians, PRCI has spread its wings pan-India and is now working towards going global with International chapters in major cities.

PRCI has been holding Global Communication Conclaves with unique themes for nine years with participation and interest rising year on year.

Conclave	Venue	Theme	Dates
1st	Bangalore	Beyond Word	March 26-27, 2007
2nd	Bangalore	Metamorphosis	March 2-3, 2008
3rd	Bangalore	Proactive Communication	April 3-5, 2009
4th	New Delhi	Emerging Avenues in Specialised Communication	April 03, 2010
5th	Chandigarh	PR in the Challenging Times of Today	March 17-18, 2011
6th	Mumbai	PR – Interface or Interference	February 13, 2012
7th	Hyderabad	Communication – Fourth Generation	February 22-23, 2013
8th	Mumbai	Responsible Communication	February 14-15, 2014
9th	New Delhi	Communicate to Connect	March 13-14, 2015

The 10^th Conclave is slated to be held at Kolkata.

Apart from providing a professional networking platform through a calendar of planned events and setting up signature awards under Chanakya series, and inducting  communication professionals into the prestigious ‘PR Hall of Fame”, PRCI has taken up several  initiatives:

• YCC or Young Communicators Club involving mass communication students
• Guest Faculty Forum with profession veterans to impart practical training among BMM and other students
• Advanced skill training programmes for upcoming new PR professionals in PSU and private companies
• Knowledge Forums to conduct seminars on issues of current interest & Tie-ups with prestigious institutions like BARC for spreading awareness about scientific research
• Communicators’ Day to involve a cross section to focus on the need for communication
• Daughters’ Day to focus on girl education etc.,

PRCI awards have now become much sought after, from across India and abroad

Our unique e-magazine - http://prapport.blogspot.in/ -which gets updated on a 24x7 basis with developments at PRCI and across the field of communication has caught the imagination of professionals in India and abroad with about 2,000 page views in a short span of two weeks.

PRCI is led by veteran PR and media professionals at national as well as City levels.

• PRCI’s Chairman Emeritus and Chief Mentor M B Jayaram is a former advisor to the Chief Minister of Karnataka State, apart from being the head of corpcom at Karnataka Power. Now he advises the Government of India-owned National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC).
• PRCI Governing Council Chairman N D Rajpal is a veteran corpcom professional having worked led the communication department at Alembic
• PRCI national President B N Kumar is a media professional with four decades of experience as a journalist and PR consultant. He worked with several top media houses and advised corporate honchos. 
• PRCI is fortunate to have Advisers such as Mr S Narendra, former advisor to PMs and an ex Spokesperson of the Govt of India, on its Board of Directors.

PRCI will soon embark on massive communication activities with prestigious universities like Bombay, Kochi, Madras, Bangalore and private educational institutions like Amity & St Xaviers’, and IITs and IIMs, involving thousands of students.

PRCI is also working with young professionals through Google groups and What’sapp forums and exploring a close-connect with business forums and chambers like CII, FICCI, IMC, trusts like Samachar Foundation and even the Bombay Stock Exchange to undertake training modules/programmes with these entities.

As you can make out, PRCI today is not a mere organization. It has become a movement with the involvement of several corporate brands like the Aditya Birla group, TAFE, Mahindra & Mahindra, Coca Cola, Karnataka Power, Concept PR, id8labs, Canara Bank, Bureau of Indian Standards, IDBI Bank, IDBI Federal Life Insurance, NTPC, Bombay Stock Exchange.

We invite you join us and be part of the global communication movement as we make giant strides ahead.

Contact: B N Kumar, National President, PRCI. +91 9820128332 or +91 93210 48332. 

Email: mailbnk@gmail.com

A PRapport Special: 12 Free Social Media Management and Marketing Tools to Boost Your Social Media Presence

By Jessica Davis in Marketing Social Media Social Media Marketing

(By arrangement with SiteProNews)

Businesses simply cannot afford to ignore the power of social media in boosting brand value. Social media allows you to connect with your target audience in a way that was not possible with traditional media. However, to reap the benefits of social media marketing, audience engagement has to be consistent. You must also pay attention to what your audience is saying about you and use those insights to improve your overall business.

However, this can’t be achieved by just opening an account on Twitter or Facebook and posting content erratically without a clear strategy. There is so much more to social media marketing and that’s why you need social media tools to help you out. Here are the top 12 free social media tools to boost your social media marketing efforts.

SocialMention

SocialMention monitors the number of mentions you receive on a social media platform. This tool works with platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and a host of others. SocialMention carries out monitoring based on four metrics and they are strength, sentiment, passion and reach.

DrumUp

DrumUp curates relevant content for your social media profiles on platforms such as Twitter and Facebook using several NLP algorithms. It allows you to edit queued content and even add customized posts. Another great feature is that it prioritizes fresh content, which means you get the advantage of posting the latest content before anyone else. This gives you a shot at being the first in line to go viral.

TweetDeck

The tool is optimized for Twitter and allows you to manage and monitor every single detail of your Twitter account using a single interface. You can even use it to customize your display. For example, you can choose whether to display a particular column or not.

Twitter Showdown

This free tool actually allows you to compare your Twitter performance with other Twitter accounts. Though it might seem like an app meant purely for entertainment and fun, it can actually help you gain insights on how you are performing against your competitors. You can look at data such as number of mentions, tweet timings, follower to following ratios, and the engagement level of your tweets. The data collected can be compared with a competitor.

SumAll

SumAll is designed exclusively for small business owners. Apart from helping you measure and mange your social media profile on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, it also connects you to services such as PayPal, Google Analytics and 42 others at no cost whatsoever. Updates are usually e-mailed to you.

Rapportive

Rapportive is a very unique tool that allows you to view the LinkedIn profile of the message sender/recepient on your Gmail account. It shows you details such as geographical location, job title, and name of organization from the person’s LinkedIn profile. You can even follow people’s Facebook statuses or tweets. The purpose of this tool is to help you expand your network by connecting with people who share similar interests.

Twazzup

This is the perfect tool if you happen to be an amateur at social media. Twazzup helps you monitor the top influencers on Twitter. All you have to do is enter the name and Twazzup does the rest. You can also get real time updates on them.

HowSociable

HowSociable lets you monitor your social media presence as well as your competitors’. The free-to-use tool allows you to access up to 12 platforms that include Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Pinterest. It even provides you with scores for each social media account, so that you can decide which one is working better for you.

Postific

A relatively new social media management tool, Postific is perfect for beginners. It has an auto-posting function for LinkedIn and lets you operate multiple social media accounts through a single interface, which is quite rare in other tools.

Topsy

Topsy is a great social media management tool that helps you search for useful and relevant content on the Web. You can even sort the content on various parameters to identify how influential an article or blog is. It even has access to Twitter’s data stream, which means you can access data all the way back from 2006. There is also a robust analytics feature that allows you to determine how often you’ve been searched in comparison to your competitors.

CircleCount

This tool is exclusively developed for Google+. You can access continuous reports and statistics on the performance of your profile and also on the level of influence you have. You can track down high ranking profiles, pages, communities, and also identify posts that have been reshared or +1ed the most. It even allows you to see the various circles that you have been included in.

Commun.it

Commun.it allows you to create a network of influencers, supporters, and possible customers. It tracks your followers and your interaction to accumulate performance, which is then displayed on a dashboard. You can study the data on the dashboard and decide on what action is to be taken, such as responding to or thanking a customer. It also calculates the number of interactions you’ve had and identifies followers whom you interact with the most.

(Jessica Davis has a keen interest in social media and content marketing, and writes extensively about it. She represents Godot Media, a leading content marketing firm.)

http://www.sitepronews.com/2015/04/24/12-free-social-media-management-and-marketing-tools-to-boost-your-social-media-presence/

WhatsApp Continues Rapid Growth, Sitting at 800M Active Users

By SPN Staff Writers in Breaking News Social Media

Facebook-owned WhatsApp is boasting it now has 800 million monthly active users.

WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum made the announcement in a Facebook post: “WhatsApp — now serving 800,000,000 monthly active users. Reminder for the press out there: active and registered users are not the same thing.”

The mobile messaging service has been enjoying rapid growth for months.

In January, Koum announced it had more than 700 million monthly active users sending more than 30 billion messages a day.
Facebook officially took ownership of WhatsApp in October, but the firm has continued on as a separate entity from the social media site.
Facebook was originally set to pay $19 billion for the popular app, forking over $4 billion in cash and approximately $12 billion worth of Facebook shares. The deal was also to include $3 billion in restricted stock units for WhatsApp’s founders and employees that will vest over four years. Facebook stock, however, increased from the time the terms of the deal were originally discussed, meaning the social network actually paid out about $21.8 billion.
It may be a colossal amount of money, but it appears it was money well spent given the ever-increasing popularity of WhatsApp. In fact, it’s user growth in the five years since its launch has easily surpassed that of Facebook, Gmail, Twitter and Skype — all of which are extremely popular Internet services or networks. (By arrangement with Site Pro News, Canada)

http://www.sitepronews.com/2015/04/20/whatsapp-continues-rapid-growth-sitting-at-800m-active-users/

Narendra None-2: Of Onion tears and Scapegoats

By S. Narendra*

The Indian summer season from April to August is always marked by shortages ranging from water and power supply to essential items. Only thing in plentiful supply in such harsh months is heat and sweat. It was no different in the summer of 1998 that had ushered in the BJP - led national democratic alliance (NDA) government at the centre. The political uncertainties following the fall of two Congress party supported governments had also affected the general economic situation. The new government was very much preoccupied with the country’s diplomatic isolation following the nuclear explosion at Pokharn in May.   

Narendra - The author is a
former Spokesperson,  Govt.of India &
information adviser to PM)

Around the month of June, media was reporting sudden shortages of edible oil in some areas; sugar prices were inching up, along with those of vegetables as well. Taking note of such media reports, I met the then finance minister who heads the cabinet committee on prices and requested him to hold an early meeting of this committee and review the situation and announce measures to deal with shortages and the price rise.

Eco-system of Prices and PR:  The cabinet committee on prices has as its members the ministers in charge of Food, Agriculture, Civil Supplies and Commerce. Some other ministers are co-opted as and when required. After reviewing the supply position of essential commodities like edible oil, pulses, wheat, rice, sugar and coarse grains like ragi, bajra and jowar,  the committee decided on improving the supply either by increasing the release of any of the commodities available in  government agencies like the Food Corporation of India or  through import.  

Generally, import of agri-commodities is beset with difficulties because the domestic suppliers oppose it as imports tend to depress prices. The trader lobbies are also not very supportive of imports as they depress prices and profits. Another factor complicating the import option is that supplies may not be available readily. Since it is a spot purchase, unlike a forward deal, the prices tend to be high. Parties in the opposition become another pressure group against imports, and always ready to allege lack of transparency and underhand dealings in imports. The farmers and supplier lobbies of different countries are another factor to deal with. They also use the political and media channels for scuttling each other’s chances. They also freely make use of the brigade of allegation makers. It is not unusual for different departments to take opposing stands for protecting their turfs. For example, the agriculture ministry would like to project itself as the friend of the farmer and would argue that the import price should not exceed the minimum support price that had been offered to the Indian farmers. Some of the states, which grow large quantities of a particular commodity such as wheat, also jump into the fray for protecting their farmer’s interests.

In any information management, preemption is important. Once the price rise panic button is pushed, it feeds on rumour and there could be a run on supplies. Traders tend to hoard, creating further shortages. The convening of the cabinet committee meeting itself could send a signal that there would be a quick government response. In some situations, it could raise unnecessary expectations. Therefore, it is very essential to ensure that the meeting deliberations are carefully released to the media. Serious divergence in the views of the members needs to be briefed openly rather than allowing selective leaks. From a policy management perspective, it is management of politics of shortage and relevant information in public space.

Onion Tears: Back to the summer of 1998. The situation was complicated by the fact that several states in the north, including Delhi, were facing elections around October. Having criticized from opposition benches for the successive governments’ failure to check price increases, BJP wanted to show that they could deal with it better than its predecessors.

Even while it was grappling with the general price rise, onion supplies were going out of the market. Onion in the north Indian cuisine is not just a vegetable: it is an essential ingredient as masala in cooking (more so in the case of non-vegetarian cuisine). In 1980, a similar shortage had led to the defeat of the then central government. The onion shortage had started to attract the maximum protest from the people and legislators, who were quick to make it their political capital.

Facts had showed that there was no shortfall in onion cultivation. It was obvious that there was onion hoarding at suppliers end. I approached the PM with a note that the onion shortage   was becoming a poll issue, and the government was being painted by the opposition as pro-trader and hence, was not in favour of de-hoarding operations. Although BJP was controlling the Delhi government, it was not acting against hoarders.

In the meanwhile, the blame game had broken out between ministries. Instead of the cabinet committee, the full cabinet meetings were held for dealing with the onion crisis. In a bizarre step, government banned the export of ‘rose onion’ or sambar onion grown in south India. This particular onion was not in short supply, and was not a substitute for its large sized   onion cousin. Rose onion is exported mostly from Tamil Nadu to Singapore and Malaysia which have a sizeable south Indian population.

After protests from its Tamil coalition partner in a cabinet meeting, this ban was lifted. There were some very odd suggestions by senior cabinet ministers for import of white )or salad) onion from Europe by air cargo. When bureaucrats tried to educate them about the fact that the continental variety was unsuitable for Indian onion masala as it was not suffiently pungent, they were snubbed. Suggestions for anti-hoarding operations even as a symbolic gesture were out of favour.

Information management in such a medley was a difficult operation. Individual ministers were allowed to air different views to media on how to deal with the situation. It was forgotten that unity of purpose is signified by unity of voice. The messengers of bad news became the targets. First to be replaced was the food   and civil supplies secretary. As government spokesperson, I was dubbed as ineffective in   dealing with media criticism.

Search for Scapegoats: Adding to the negative perception were other developments like   attacks on minority places of worship and faith leaders. Suggestions that   the center should come out with condemnation of such attacks   did not find favour. Advice tendered in writing that the new government should initiate steps to allay the apprehensions of the minorities and announce steps for their economic inclusiveness were ignored.  The party lost power in Delhi and most of the states where elections were held.  And, onions began to flow back into the market soon after.  And the search for scapegoats, such as the government PR and media relations set up headed by me, gathered momentum. Rest is history! 

Duplicate Modi @ Press Club's 'OUCH' Awards and some for crazy media moments!

MUMBAI, April 20, 2015: : Subramanian Swamy, Rahul Gandhi, BBC and Shobhaa De, who are among recipients of the Mumbai Press Club's inaugural ‘Golden Ouch’ Awards. This is the prize whose winners might say 'Ouch', not cheese, while posing for prize photographs!

On Monday, eminent journalists Bachi Karkaria and others, on behalf of the Mumbai Press Club, gave away the ‘'prestigious' Ouch Awards in 14 categories for the craziest moments in media at a glittering function anchored by stand-up comedian Anuvab Pal. The evening of good-humored satire was a prelude to the more serious Mumbai Press Club RedInk Awards on April 30, 2015 that celebrate the finest in Indian journalism.

With outrageous statements a near-daily phenomenon, and outrage of many varieties a staple of the daily news cycle on mainstream as well as social media, the Press Club felt it was about time to honour the national champions in this new and burgeoning field with awards. Besides, there are awards for everything and given to all and sundry for any old nonsense, so why not yet another award for some real, quality nonsense?

Competition was stiff in many categories, but nowhere more so than in the race for the person who spoke most strongly in retarding the cause of women, for which the list of nominees was very, very long. In the end, Hon Minister Giriraj Singh won this award despite stiff competition from Abu Azmi, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Tapas Pal, and many others.

Duplicate Modi - Vikas Mahanta - sharing some lighter moments at the Press Club's Ouch awards

However, there was very little competition in some categories, such as "Leadership in Absentia", for which Rahul Gandhi was the runaway winner. The only other name that came up was Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, but since the awards are for recent achievements, Mr Gandhi won this award by a comfortable majority of jury votes.

Only two categories were decided unanimously with no other name even mentioned. One was Dr Subramanian Swamy, who won the Ouchie for Lifetime Achievement effortlessly. Dr Swamy has been given this prize for his tireless efforts in the field of "consistently and eloquently delivering highly provocative statements". His contributions towards inventing a whole new lexicon of outrage and abuse were deemed matchless. A surprise pulled off with great elan was 'Narendra Modi' double Vikas Mahante receiving the award on behalf of 'Subramanin Swamy'.

Mr Arvind Kejriwal, too, swept the award for Transparency in Public Life with no competition, thanks to this tweet: "Running 102 fever since yesterday. Severe loose motions. Sad that i won't be able to attend office today."

We were happy to recognize Mr Kejriwal's peerless efforts in extending transparency that extended to letting the whole country know about the state of his stomach. His tweet went where no sting video has ever gone.

It was wonderful to have such a distinguished list of winners from across the political spectrum in our very first awards. Awardees also span a remarkable range of educational achievements, from former Harvard professor Dr Swamy to IITian Mr Kejriwal to Dr Sakshi Maharaj, who apparently holds a Ph.D from a Sanskrit institute in Varanasi. We wonder if any other award in India so accurately reflects the variegated wisdom of our leaders.

The absolute howlers of the evening included a 'Presswalla' dhobi picking up the award for General V K Singh, Sharad Yadav's 'masseur' standing in for the award and a white-uniformed Taj Hotel driver being mistaken for a navy man and forced on stage as an 'unwilling representative' of Coast Guard DIG B K Loshali.

The media, too, received a small share of honour. Apart from clarifying the true meaning of the word "presstitute", which we realized was a mash of the words "press+destitute", we were also pleased to recognize the contributions of BBC in science reporting and the Hindustan Times in caption writing.

Unity in diversity is truly what makes India a great place, especially for the Golden Ouch awards. We look forward to honouring more stalwarts of outrage and foot-in-mouth in years to come.

………………………………………………………………………….

COMPELTE LIST OF OUCH AWARDEES WITH THE CITATIONS:

1.      Golden Ouch For Transparency in Public Life.

Citation: For his evangelism in pursuing transparency and detoxification of self and the 'body politic' – and for his great progress from singing to stinging and some very surprising mud-slinging!

Winner: Arvind Kejriwal for his tweet on loose motions.

2.      Golden Ouch For Leadership in Absentia

Citation: For going on extended vacation when the ‘party’ needs him most, for staying  away from parliament at its most critical moments, for his enormous vocabulary of two  key words: ‘women’s empowerment’!

Winner: Rahul Gandhi.

3. Golden Ouch For Advancing The Cause Of Women.

Citation: For excelling in the field of gender prejudice in the face of enormous domestic competition, and for successfully hurting the sentiments of a friendly African nation.

Golden 'Ouch' for Advancing the Cause of Women (and For Improving Foreign Relations

Winner: Honourable Minister Of State For Micro, Small And Medium Enterprise Giriraj Singh

AND JOINT GOLDEN OUCH WINNER

For crudely changing the complexion of parliamentary discourse by his racially-charged comments on the skin of South Indian women and his response to the  criticism of HRD Minister SmritiIrani

Winner: Honourable JD(U) Chief, Sharad Yadav

4.  Silver Ouch For Advancing the Cause of Women
Citation: For their consistent, unstinting commitment to the cause of misogyny and patriarchy despite the valiant battles being fought for independence and respect by the women of India and their supporters.

WINNERS: Tie between two defence lawyers M.L.Sharma and A.P.Singh in the Nirbhaya case.

5.  Golden Ouch For Confession of the Year.
Citation:  For either shooting down a Pakistani boat or simply shooting his mouth off – using ‘biryani’ again as a new metaphor for Indian hospitality.

Winner: Coast Guard DIG, B.K. Loshali

6.  Golden Ouch For Confession of the Year – Part 2

Citation: For his extraordinary morality and misplaced sense of pride in cooking up a  'biryani lie' to build public opinion against a prisoner on death row and thus expediting  his execution.

Winner: Special Public Prosecutor, Ujjwal Nikam

7. Golden 'Ouch' for Best Science Reporting (Rising to the Occasion!)
Citation: For provoking and arousing laughter and embarrassment around a serious scientific phenomenon by alluding to a male sexual phenomenon that is best not talked about.

Winner: THE BBC for calling the Large Hadron Collider the "Large Hardon Collider"

8. Golden 'Ouch' for Best HISTORY Reporting
Citation: For insisting that Indians flew planes centuries before the Wright Brothers (and Air-India), that these planes flew between nations and planets, that they flew forwards, backwards and sideways –– and above all, that these were no flights of the imagination.

Winner:: Captain Anand J. Bodas for Educating the Masses on India’s Aeronautical Achievements in Vedic Times

9. Golden 'Ouch' for his ‘labours’ in Family Planning

 Citation: For asking women of a certain religion to labour' their entire adult lives producing babies and thus working tirelessy for the cause of resurgent majoritarianism.

Winner: Sakshi Maharaj For Urging Hindu Women To Have More Children

10. Golden 'Ouch' for the most Non-Violent Statement

Citation: For having an instant opinion on every issue and for his sweeping attacks as ‘imperialist collaborator’ on the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, and of the founder of the Indian National Army, Subash Chandra Bose.

Winner: FORMER SUPREME COURT JUDGE and FORMER CHAIRMAN, PRESS
COUNCIL OF INDIA, MARKANDEY KATJU, ON GANDHIJI

11.  Golden Ouch For A Newspaper Blooper

Citation: For the best caption in the print media that outlines the care and detail that goes into addressing the photographs that accompany news items.

Winner: HT for referring to the Shakti Mills rape convicts and showing a Chinese trade delegation photo.

12.  Joint Golden 'Ouch' for the best criticism of the press
Citation: For hurting the sentiments of commercial sex workers by calling media people "presstitutes". General V.K. Singh for hastily coining the word, and Justice Katju for endorsing it with his usual efficiency.

Winner: Gen VK Singh & Justice Markandey Katju

13.  Golden 'Ouch' for Food Critic of the year
Citation: For a remark in delightful poor taste, elevating the lowly American popcorn above the thundering all-conquering indigenous warrior taste of VADA-PAO and MISAL.

Winner: Shobhaa De

14. Golden Ouch Lifetime Achievement
Citation: For consistently and eloquently delivering highly provocative statements with exquisite sophistry, confounding both enemies and allies alike

Winner: Subramaniam Swamy

Top DD official appreciates PRapport

MUMBAI, April 20, 2015: "Wow, very nice," said Mr C K Jain, Dy. DG - PR & Publicity and International Relations at Doordarshan as he viewed PRCI e-mag PRapport today. 

Mr Jain, who made a surprise visit to PRCI-Mumbai, took keen interest in the e-mag.

PRCI President BNK explained to Mr Jain the salient features of the organization and the recent initiatives.

PRCI sought DD’s help and Mr Jain’s support. He nodded and said: “Let’s see what we can do together.”