Indian PR: Transform or Perish

If India is the birthplace of human speech as commented by Mark Twain, communication experts confirmed that India is also the birthplace of communication. More than 2,500 years ago, when the term communication was not coined, Lord Buddha had spread Buddhism born in India to the entire continent of Asia through his innovative household communication, spoken word, parables, metaphor and trained group of preaching monks called Bhikshus.

Therefore, the Buddha is regarded not only as the light of Asia but also as a public relations communication messiah and the forerunner of today's global communication. To the people of the East, the new religion made a great impact. Even the two epics – the Ramayana and the Mahabharatha – did mention the great communicators of that period such as Sage Narada, Lord Krishna and Lord Hanuman. That has been the historical background of the beginning of Indian communication and public relations.

Transform
Transformation of Indian public relations can be divided into five broad models: 1) The State of Propaganda Model from 1,500 BC to the end of the East India Company Rule in 1858; 2) The Era of Publicity or Publicity Model representing the British India Rule (1858 – 1947); 3) The Gandhian Techniques of Public Communication Model (1919-1947); 4) The Age of Public Relations Model in the Independent India (1947-1991); and 5) India Public Relations with Global Perspective or Global Public Relations Model (1991 – to date).

It may thus be seen that public relations in India was born as propaganda in ancient India, which became publicity in British India and that publicity had graduated into public relations in independent India. Public communication was the nomenclature during Gandhian Era. However, public relations growth rate in India increased manifold after 1991, when globalization-based New Industrial Policy was introduced. India entered the global PR arena.

The survey of Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India pegged the size of public relations in India at six billion dollars (over Rs. 35,000 crores) and predicted an annual growth rate of 32 per cent.

Quantity Vs Quality
The state-of-the-art public relations in India is a ‘Mixed Bag,’ containing highly qualified PR professionals, who are second to none, in the world on the one side and many non-professionals without any grounding in public relations education, training and experience on the other. PR critics, therefore, call them as ‘Spin Doctors’ or ‘Manipulators.’

Public Relations Voice, the journal of PR professionals, announced ‘Public relations case study competition’ with a cash prize of Rs 10,000 for the best case study. Unfortunately, only two sub-standard case studies entered the competition. The need of the hour, therefore, is professional excellence. The distinguishing trait of public relations profession in India is the “Quantity of PR Personnel” rather than “Quality of the PR Profession.”

Ten Pitfalls
Why has public relations not grown professionally as a strategic management function? Here is a list of 10 pitfalls:

Reading is Learning
The CEO, Adfactors, Madan Bahal, while addressing the 39th All India PR Conference in Visakhapatnam made a shocking statement that according to his survey, 90 per cent of public relations personnel have not read any book on public relations; A Twitter survey by a PR consultant, Richa Seth, indicates that a whopping 50 per cent of the PR professionals, if given a choice, would like to choose a career other than PR; though public relations is a strategic management function, its practitioners perform the role of a technician rather than strategic managers.

Education and Training
Public relations has acquired the status of an independent profession, but its education is still in its infancy. When Dr B R Ambedkar Open University proposed to launch MA Mass Communication and Public Relations, the University Grants Commission (UGC) rejected the proposal on the plea that this course was not on its approved list. Lack of both induction and in-service training is the greatest drawback of public relations.

One Chief Editor commented that 90 per cent of press notes that come from PROs are not worth publishing because they lack journalistic writing. Lack of research and evaluation of PR programmes is yet another major shortfall of Indian public relations practice. Public relations may never be fully respected unless it can provide measurement of its value

Identity Crisis
Identity crisis of public relations is a major pitfall. It is still misunderstood and confused with several nomenclatures from public relations to corporate communications, publicity and public affairs. If India lives in its six lakh villages, Indian public relations predominantly remains in urban India. Such a yawning gap is a big challenge to public relations.

PR Credibility: The handiwork of corporate communications department of Satyam Computers Rs. 14000 crore scam in which stakeholders were misled by painting a glorious picture of the company and Niira Radia’s Vaishnavi Communication's notorious power dealings popularly known as 'Radiagate Scam' damaged the credibility of PR profession. A major challenge that Indian PR facing is about lack of its global PR exposure through international body like Global Alliance for Communication and Public Relations management, because Indian national PR bodies are not affiliated.

Future Challenges
Alongside the above pitfalls, public relations professionals will face a host of challenges including communicating in a multi-cultural society of 120 crore population, facilitating organisational transparency, managing corporate social responsibility, handling 24x7 news cycle, adoption of new communication technology to reach out to all types of stakeholders.

PR Professional Bodies
It is the onerous duty of Indian PR professional bodies such as ABCI, PRSI and PRCI to improve and maintain high professional standards among PR practitioners with an eye on the Board Room. When asked, senior PR practitioners opined that before revamping public relations, the PR professional bodies must be transformed in their functioning on a par with PRSA in USA. If the term of office of national presidents of PR professional bodies in the West is only one year, some of the national presidents in India continue for more than a decade. Young blood should be given due place in the profession.

Perish
As India transformed from a famine-stricken country to a global economic player, poised to become world’s third biggest economy, public relations also changed its position from propaganda to global public relations. Considering the way it progressed in the 20th century, public relations in is stagnant in 21st century, facing innumerable challenges. If such inadequacies and challenges are not monitored and addressed with a new vision, there is a danger that public relations may perish or it may be taken over either by HR or Marketing.

By: Dr C V Narasimha Reddi
(Writer is Editor, Public Relations Voice, and former Director (I&PR), Andhra Pradesh)