Thursday, 30 June 2016

Veteran journo Raikar felicitated

Veteran journalist and former Group Editor of the Lokmat Group Dinkar Raikar was today felicitated at Mumbai Press Club on completing 75 years of age, and 46 years in Journalism. 
Raikar (left) after receiving PRCI souvenir as Press Club Chairman Prakash
Akolkar and B N Kumar, PRCI national president, and Sanjay Rammoorthy,
General Secretary, PRCI -Mumbai Capter, look on
Public Relations Council of India (PRCI) also presented him a souvenir.
For Raikar, a well wisher of PRCI, It is a milestone well-achieved. The important thing is Raikar has no intention of slowing down or hanging up his boots. He is firmly in the saddle and continues to gallop as an active and leading journalist.
For those who have worked with him and have a story to tell, please be there to share it with all of us.
Raikar was an employee with the Indian Express Group with the technical services department before he entered journalism. In 1970, he was promoted and offered an editorial post in the Indian Express, which he grabbed; and there was no looking back since. He was not parachuted into senior positions, but made his way up steadily from the ranks working as a reporter and finally becoming the City Editor of the Indian Express. In 1993, he was elevated as the Deputy Editor of 'Loksatta' - the largest selling Marathi daily in those years; and he became the front face of the newspaper till he retired in 2002.
 Raikar took a break only for a few months before he was made Editor of Lokmat, then a Hindi and Marathi daily largely circulated in Vidharbha region of Maharashtra. From 2002, under Raikar's leadership, Lokmat expanded not only to a multi-city newspaper all over Maharashtra, but also grew as an English title with multiple editions in all major cities of the state.

 He says he has no intention of retiring from journalism in the near future, and is all set to hit his half century in the profession in the coming years and months.

Tuesday, 28 June 2016

Rs-10-a-day campaign in Delhi for #shakti4beti

#shakti4beti gains momentum with Beti Padhao campaign!

Keeping the initiative of PM Narendra Modi in their hearts, the Delhi chapter of PRCI will be sponsoring schooling of almost 50 girls who belong to less privileged families.

After an extensive search our team identified the Govt Girls High School situated in Delhi NCR area.

To celebrate Daughters Day and spread the message of BETI BACHAO - BETI PADHAO, the PRCI members we will be visiting the school in mid July,2016 and will handover the amount collected that will cover their tuition fee,books,uniform etc for one year.

An informative session with a leading gynecologist will also be arranged during our visit to make these girls aware of personal hygiene and health.

PRCI will also organise a self defence presentation by an expert keeping in mind the Beti ki Suraksha motto

Prof B K Ravis' book TV and Rural development released


Chief Minister of Karnataka Sri .Siddaramaiah  released a book  entitled " Television and Rural Development" written by Prof.B.K.Ravi, Department of Communication, Bangalore University who is also the Chairman, PRCI, Bangalore Chapter on 25th June 2016. Seen in the picture are renowned Music Director Hamsalekha, Minister for Social Welfare and Backward Classes Welfare Sri.Aanjaneya and Former Minister and MLC Sri.H.M.Revanna.

Monday, 27 June 2016

Mumbai Univ bags ABP News’ National Education award

For the second consecutive time the Department of Communication and Journalism, University of Mumbai has received the ABP NEWS National Education Awards for `B- School with Industry related curriculum in Communication Management'.

PRCI congratulated the Department congratulated on this achievement. 

The Award is in recognition of Leadership, Development, Marketing an Institute and Industry Interface among the Mumbai University department.
An independent jury and a panel of professionals who believe in nurturing talent and in recognising the best of the best picked up the winner.

The award was presented during an event at Taj Lands End, Bandra on Thursday the 23rd.

The Head of the Department Dr. Sunder Rajdeep said: ‘'The Department is honoured to receive the Award for the second time in a row.”

ABP NEWS National Education Awards recognizes institutions that are innovative, modern and industry related in their curriculum in Marketing, Advertising and Marketing Communications.

The juries were Prof. Y. K. Bhushan, Senior Advisor, ICFAI, Mumbai & Chancellor of ICFAI University, Nagaland; The Vice Chancellor of  Banasthali University Dr. Aditya Shashtri; The Vice Chancellor of  Pt. Ravi Shankar Shukla University Prof. S. K. Pandey; The Vice Chancellor of  University of Mines & Technology (UMaT), Tarkwa, Ghana, Prof. Jerry S. Y. Kuma; The Vice Chancellor of  University of Nambia Prof. Lazarus Hangula; The Vice Chancellor of  Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad Dr. Prof. B. A. Chopade; and the President of University of Modern Science Prof. Mod. Monier El-Toukhy.

The Department also received Lokmat National Leadership Award 2014 under the same category.


Sunday, 26 June 2016

Instant Media – Constant Challenge: BNK's E4M Column

Instant Media – Constant Challenge

It is just not enough to use the modern communication tools for spreading messages. It is much more important to keep an eye on what others do with those tools since negative postings get picked up and spread faster than forest fire, writes B N Kumar, Executive Director of Concept PR & National President, PRCI.

Anybody with a smart phone in hand is a potential journalist. While journalists do post development related to the news, other smart phone holders post what they see, hear and experience. For a smart (pun intended) phone holder it does  not require even 140 characters to post something nasty like “JJ Flyover sucks” and the message goes viral in no time. Negative postings get picked up and spread faster than forest fire. No one viralises posts like “I love India”. Sad but true, trolls get noticed.

Read the thought provoking column here:


http://www.exchange4media.com/digital/guest-columninstant-media---constant-challenge-b-n-kumar-concept-pr_65003.html

IANS flashesPRCI #shakti4beti story

Business Standard

Plea to PM Modi to declare Kalpana Chawla birthday as Daughters' Day

Indian born NASA astronaut, died along with six crew members of the Space Shuttle Columbia

IANS  |  New Delhi 



Urging Prime Minister to declare July 1 as Daughters' Day in memory of Indian born NASA astronaut Kalpana Chawla, the Public Relations Council of India (PRCI) has launched a campaign #shakti4beti.
Kalpana, who had an illustrious career as a NASA astronaut, died along with six crew members of the Space Shuttle Columbia, which disintegrated over Texas during its re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, just 16 minutes before landing. July 1 is Kalpana's official birthday. Even after her tragic death, Kalpana continues to be a shining example and icon for many girls around the world.
-- the pan-India premier body of PR, Media, Advertising, HR professionals and mass communication academicians -- embarked on a social media campaign to focus on communicating on the importance of girl security, culminating with Daughter's Day events on Friday next (July 1).
PRCI has petitioned the Prime Minister and tweeted to the HRD, Defence and Railway ministers urging for their help and support for #shakti4beti and declaring July 1 as Daughters' Day.
Explaining the significance of the theme, B N Kumar,president of PRCI, said: "Beti Suraksha (girls' security) falls in line with the Union government's campaign Beti Bachao Beti Padhao. We as communication professionals firmly believe that it is absolutely important to communicate to the society at large on the issue that bothers all -- the security of the girl child".
"The memory of Kalpana Chawla, whose glory grew sky high, remains as an inspiration and we as communicators are keen to ensure that the GenX remembers with a sense of pride," said M B Jayaram, Chairman Emeritus and Chief Mentor of PRCI. "We at PRCI observe July 1 as Daughters' Day each year and now we have urged the Prime Minister to declare it as a National Daughters' Day," he added.
PRCI has also launched a Twitter and Facebook campaign to focus on communication about girl safety and security, and proposed to schools and colleges to initiate self defence programmes for girls.
"We are happy that KJ Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research (SIMSR) at Somaiya Vidyavihar, Mumbai, has agreed to actively participate in the campaign. Students will be mobilised to communicate on the issue. A Navi Mumbai-based developer, Prajapati Constructions, has also given its consent to launch the drive at a school in Uran, near Mumbai," said Kumar.
PRCI chapters across the country have also planned campaigns.The Bengaluru chapter planned a Beti Padhao programme.

Tuesday, 21 June 2016

Tinkering can lead to creative thoughts

You  must have read Piyush Pandey interview in April 2016 issue of CHANAKYA stressing on creative communication.
Readers are welcome to express their views.
Here, Mumbai-based young communicator RICHA SETH shares her thought on the issue.

Richa

Recently, I stumbled upon a very interesting article that talked about the growing concept of ‘Makerspaces’; as the definition goes, “A makerspace is a collaborative workspace inside a school, library or separate public/private facility for making, learning, exploring and sharing that uses high tech to no tech tools.” Essentially it is a dedicated place where people come together to tinker, explore, create and invent something new with the help of a like-minded community. While this concept is gaining some traction in India, and as per news reports, there are estimated 26 makerspaces that have come up in India. Read more about it here:http://bit.ly/1QdVWJI

Coming to the business of Public Relations, creativity has become a critical priority for businesses to choose a consultancy. In fact, the industry is striving towards reinventing itself when it comes to creating quality and unique PR campaigns that are globally competitive. However, many of us still have so many questions about spurring creativity in our very own teams, some of the ideas are:

  1. Tinkering Time: Some of us would have read about start-ups allowing its employees dedicated day/time for tinkering. This is very important for communication consultants to break-away from the usual rigmarole of activities and spend some time thinking about unique ways of solving a client problem. Tinkering can be done in groups as well and it should be encouraged in a different environment to break the monotony.
  1. Platform for Presenting Ideas: Coming together in teams for brainstorming ideas and presenting them to get feedback is immensely beneficial. An interesting full-day workshop called ‘Manthan’(inspired from the Hindu mythology, sagar manthan, a process thought by gods and demons to churn out nectar from the ocean) is practiced by Adfactors PR B2B, Tech & Start-Up SBU wherein the team dedicates a day to present campaign ideas along with story themes that are used for the quarter plans. To add to this, individual team members presenting best ideas are also rewarded appropriately that helps to keep them motivated.
  1. Sources of Creative Inspiration: So what can be your inspiration to come up with unique and original ideas? To begin with start to draw analogies from what is happening in the environment, what are the issues impacting the social-economic environment. Then think it through, can your client as a corporate take a lead and help resolve the problem? To give you an example, consider the drought issue faced in Maharashtra, if your client has its plant/offices in the state, can it tie-up with an NGO and adopt one village? Such topical ideas that align with the client’s business objectives are always welcome. What else, read some of the award winning international case studies, cover stories of magazines, keep a tab on research reports by associations, Twitter Feeds of thought leaders or get inspired by videos from YouTube.

Saturday, 18 June 2016

PRCI celebrating Daughters’ Day on July 01 - Theme: #shakti4beti

  • Social media campaign, ground events planned


Celebrating July 1 as Daughters’ Day in memory of Indo-American astronaut Kalpana Chawla, Public Relations Council of India (PRCI) has set this year’s theme for the day as #shakti4beti to focus attention on girl security.
PRCI - the pan-India premier body of PR, Media, Advertising, HR professionals and mass communication academicians – is launching a week-long social media campaign on the next Monday and working with various colleges that teach mass communication courses to communicate on the burning issue of girl security.
Kalpana, who had an illustrious career, died along with six crew members of the Space Shuttle Columbia which disintegrated over Texas during its re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, just 16 minutes before landing. July 01 was Kalpana’s official birthday. Even after her tragic death, Kalpana continues to be a shining example and icon for many girls around the world.
Beti Suraksha (girl security) falls perfectly in line with the Union Government’s campaign Beti Bachao - Beti Padhao. We as communication professionals firmly believe that it is absolutely important to communicate to the society at large on the issue that bothers all – the security of the girl child.”
PRCI has written to the Prime Minister and the HRD Minister urging for their help and support for #shakti4beti.
These are some steps that we can be taken take for a giant leap for the girl child:
  • Join the #shakti4beti twitter campaign
  • Tweet, retweet and convince others to spread the good word
  • Join the online contest on twitter, facebook and Youtube
  • Conduct talks by experts and celebrities on the theme
  • ·         Invite cyber cops to address our groups on tackling online eve-teasing
  • Form human chains outside our campuses or at key traffic islands with banners carrying the message: #shakti4beti
  • And most importantly, run crash courses on self defense for girls with the help of trained instructors

PRCI and its youth wing Young Communicators Club (YCC) will be happy to coordinate the activity.
We can also invite social organizations and groups like Lions and Rotary Clubs to join us.

Let’s do our bit our bit for Beti Suraksha.

Thursday, 16 June 2016

Monday, 13 June 2016

Simple communication, key to PR success

Communication veterans guide upcoming professionals @ YCC-Vamnicon, Pune


PUNE: YCC VAMNICOM Chapter and PRCI Pune Chapter jointly Organised a Seminar on “Importance of Communication and Public Relations” on June 8, 2016.
Prashant Pathrabe (IIS), Director-PIB Pune and Chairman-PRCI Pune, delivered the keynote address. Sumedh Gupt, Regional Head-Business Development at Business Standard was the chief guest.



Er. Sanjeeb Patjoshi (IPS ADG),  Director-VAMNICOM, inaugurated the event.

A new batch of students recently joined at Vamnicom, a Government of India's premier Agribusiness Management Institute at Pune.
Avinash Gawai (National Secretary-PRCI YCC) has launched the YCC Chapter at Vamnicom in 2013 and even since, every year new set of YCC office bearers have been carrying on the YCC ahead.
Avinash Gawai in his opening remarks mentioned the importance of communication and the public relations for every professional, organisation or personal success in life.
He also expressed his gratitude to Vamnicom Director Er. Sanjeeb Patjoshi (IPS ADG) for all his help and guidance in making Vamnicom as the Resource Center for PRCI YCC Movement.
Er Patjoshi said in his speech that communication is an all pervasive phenomenon today and it is very important to learn basics of communication from experts in the field. He exhorted the students to avoid complicated words in their written communication. The event was organized by PRCI Pune for the students at VAMNICON.
Pathrabe said PR is an important skill which officials and executives working in the rural areas should endeavour to learn to perform their role more effectively said Prashant Pathrabe the Director of Press Information Bureau(PIB).

(L to R) Mr. Sumedh Gupte (Regional Head-Business Standard), Mr. Avinash Gawai (National Secretary- PRCI YCC), Mr. Prashant Pathrabe IIS (Director-Press Information Bureau) Ministry of Information & Brodcasting, Government of India and Rhythm Wagholikar (Chairman Ycc Pune Chapter)
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Pathrabe stressed that in performing their basic role in rural areas PR would be an invaluable skill as it is very useful at higher levels in the organization. After graduating these students work in management roles in banks, seeds and pesticide companies, cooperative institutions, agri-feed organizations and in poultry and other related agricultural activities.
He said what is required for doing PR is the ability to write in simple language and the ability to disseminate to media apart from the knowledge of the development and its context. He shared the experience of doing Public Information Campaigns in rural areas for disseminating the schemes of central government done by the PIB. In the rural setting, he said, rapport with local media and knowing the regional language is important.
Motivating the students for taking up communication roles he said passion for meeting people and command over language are the two prerequisites for being successful in this field. He said if you do it right you would get a better response in the rural areas to your communication activities than you would get in an urban area.
Sumedh Gupte elaborated on different aspects of advertising as an important part of the professional message and why it was important for an individual to market himself properly.
The informative talks were followed by a brief interactive session. Answering questions Pathrabe said media in India has a lot of freedom and had played an important role in bringing about awareness in the country. To another question on the functioning of media, he said media is being self-regulated in the country.
Mr. Rhythm Wagholikar was selected as the new Chairman of the Young Communicators Club (YCC) of the PRCI Pune.




Monday, 30 May 2016

#kickthatcancerstick

We at Concept PR launched this unique social communication campaign today on the even of the World No Smoking Day.

Request all to support it.