Public Relations in India

PUBLIC RELATIONS

IN IndiA

ii l Public Relations in India

PUBLIC RELATIONS

IN India

New Tasks and Responsibilities

J.V. Vilanilam

Copyright © J.V. Vilanilam, 2011

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any

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in writing from the publisher.

First published in 2011 by

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vi l Public Relations in India

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Contents

List of Tables and Figures ix

List of Abbreviations xi

Preface xiii

1. A Conceptual Framework for PR in India 1

2. The Growth and Development of Modern PR 46

3. Twentieth Century Corporate PR and PR Writing 83

4. Essential Qualities of a PR Person 124

5. Practical PR, Business Writing and Media Relations 155

6. Tools for Internal PR 200

7. Tools for External PR 213

8. International Communication 234

9. Cross-cultural Communication 252

Appendices 265

Bibliography 282

Index 285

About the Author 292

viii l Public Relations in India

List of Tables

and figures

Table

5.1 Eight Major World Languages and the Number

of Their Users 158

Appendix Tables

Tables 2–14 Unprecedented Growth

of Indian Newspapers in the New Millennium

D2 ASSAMESE 276

D3 BENGALI Dailies 276

D4 GUJARATI Dailies 276

D5 HINDI Dailies 277

D6 KARNATAKA Dailies 277

D7 MALAYALAM Dailies 277

D8 MARATHI Dailies 277

D9 ORIYA Dailies 278

D10 PUNJABI Dailies 278

D11 TAMIL Dailies 278

D12 TELUGU Dailies 278

D13 URDU Dailies 278

D14 ENGLISH Dailies and Periodicals in States and

Union Territories, 2006–2007 and Their Percentage

of Total Dailies and Periodicals in India in

Different Languages 279

x l Public Relations in India

Figures

4.1 PR in Top Management 129

4.2 Intrapersonal Base of All Communication Activities 146

4.3 Priority of Human Needs 150

List of

Abbreviations

AIPAC American-Israel Public Affairs Committee

APL Above Poverty Line

ATC American Tobacco Company

ATR Action-taken reports

B&MGF Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

BPL Below Poverty Line

CCO Chief Communications Officer

CNN Cable News Network

COMSAT Communications Satellite

CSS Credit and Semester System

DGP Director-General of Police

DTP Desktop Publishing

EDT Electronic Data Transfer

GoM Group of Ministers

HDI Human Development Index

HP Hewlett Packard

HRA House Rent Allowance

ICT Information and Communication Technology

IIMC Indian Institute of Mass Communication

INMARSAT International Maritime Satellite Organisation

IRC India Resource Centre

JNNURM Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal

Mission

LSG Local Self Government

MGNREGS Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment

Guarantee Scheme

xii l Public Relations in India

MKSS Mazdoor Kisan Sabha Sanghatan

MNC Multinational Corporation

MoU Memorandum of Understanding

MSp Minimum Support Price

NCF National Commission on Farming

NREGS National Rural Employment Guarantee

Scheme

OB Vans Outdoor broadcasting vans

ONC Own Nation’s Company

OPHI Oxford Poverty and Human Development

Initiative

OSHA Occupational Safety and Health Act

PDS Public Distribution System

PR Public Relations

PRCI Public Relations Council of India

PRI Panchayati Raj Institutions

PRO Public Relations Officer

PRSA Public Relations Society of America

PRSI Public Relations Society of India

PRSSA Public Relations Student Society of America

PURA Provision of Urban Facilities in Rural Areas

SEZ Special Economic Zones

TIRC Tobacco Industry Research Committee

UCC Union Carbide Corporation

UCIL Union Carbide India Limited

UNAWEE United Nations Agency for Women’s Equality

and Empowerment

UPA United Progressive Alliance

UNDP United Nations Development Programme

Preface

Public Relations or PR, like charity, begins at home! Yes, for us,

home is India. And India has a PR problem. On the one hand, it is a

rich, technically advanced country with a few billionaires and many

millionaires; on the other, it is a country with a huge mass of poor,

illiterate and unhealthy people. Can we do something to change this

situation? Can the public and private sector PR do something about it?

According to a recent interview that Hasan Suroor of The Hindu

had with Sabina Alkire, Director of the Oxford Poverty and Human

Development Initiative (OPHI), ‘Poverty in at least eight states—

Bihar, UP, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Orissa, MP, Chhattisgarh and

Jharkhand—is worse than (that) in some of the poorest countries of

sub-Saharan Africa’ (The Hindu, 20 July 2010).

We shall go into the details of poverty in India during the course of

the book but it is one of the assumptions of this study that PR in the

modern world must have new social responsibilities including poverty

removal not only in India but in the entire world.

Since modern PR is a branch of management, people think they

have to ‘exercise’ PR only in the business management or corporate

environment to gain attention, communicate or even propagate certain

ideas, win popular support or get things done in an easy manner without

opposition, but with full accord, from the different ‘publics’ of the firm,

factory or organization.

But if we look at the history of management itself, we find that the

first organized attempts at winning individual or group consent were

made in 400 bc when Cyrus recognized the need for human relations.

xiv l Public Relations in India

Large parts of Jesus’ public interactions in Capernaum, Galilee and

Jerusalem were based on his intense interest in the human beings he was

meeting. Many of his parables are, in a way, gems in human relations.

In the 16th century, Niccolo Machiavelli relied on the mass con￾sent principle and recognized the need for unity and cohesion in

organizations; he even listed leadership qualities. Robert Owen in

New Lanark (Scotland) built clean row homes for workers in the early

part of the 19th century. He stressed the need for personnel practices

and applied them in the work situation winning the consent of his

colleagues. He also took up the responsibility of training workers.

Charles Babbage, the father of computer concepts, cost accounting

and the designing of the big computer machine in the first half of the

19th century, is also known for his interest in the effect of various

colours on employee efficiency.

In more modern times, many great inventors, thinkers and business

organizers devoted time and money for developing systems that helped

the welfare, comforts, efficiency and socio-economic advancement of

workers. The science of management progressed steadily into well￾respected and systematic courses of study in colleges and universities in

many parts of the Western world. Towards the end of the 19th century,

the science of management became established, especially after the

establishment of the first college in business management by Joseph

Wharton in 1881.

Scientific management became more organized when Frederick

W. Taylor evolved systems applications, personnel management, etc.,

and vigorously spoke about the need for cooperation between labour

and management, higher wages, equal and just distribution and allo￾cation of work, time and methods of study, emphasis on research, im￾provement of working conditions, particularly in light of the working

environment.

Make no mistake that these early excursions into different related

and unrelated fields by many brilliant people in several parts of the

world led to a general awareness about the need for cementing the

relations between the workers and the management. Attempts by

Henry L. Gantt, for example, to streamline the bonus system and hu￾manistic approach to labour led to improvements in, and principles of,