Arun Arora quits Maruti

Arun Arora, who is known for several innovative PR initiatives at Maruti Udyog Ltd, is moving on.

“I have quit Maruti to pursue career in another industry,” he says.

Here is wishing him all the best.

Public relations and corporate social responsibility

The public relations industry and the media – particularly those media groups that are great votaries of development communications – should try and focus on social issues.

Among the serious problems facing the country is gender imbalance. Jatinder Vijh raises a pertinent question, “The female-male ratio is falling drastically in India, especially in northern sates like Punjab and Haryana. Can we in PR take it as a challenge to correct the pro-boy child bias of the people? It is high time such corporate social responsibility issues are taken up by corporates.”

Vijh would like July 1, birth anniversary of Kalpana Chawla, to be dedicated as ‘Happy Daughters Day’.

Public relations course at IIM Bangalore

Dr Seema Gupta has joined the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, where she intends to offer a course on corporate reputation management.

“Hopefully, it will help the industry and profession by sensitizing the future managers about the roles and responsibilities of corporate communications & PR,” says Dr Gupta.

Dr Gupta was earlier head of the PG programme in PR & event management at Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad.

With the demand for sound communications professionals increasing every passing minute, the Indian communications industry looks forward to more such initiatives.

“This is something worth appreciating,” says Priyadarshi Tripathy, hitting the bull’s eye. “Can I expect this course to not just train and groom future communications pros, but also encourage higher studies, research and policy-making in the field of corporate communications (or business communications in total)? Any profession to emerge stronger requires research along with practice.”

Here is wishing Dr Gupta and her team all the best!

Bullish about Asian PR industry

WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorell is bullish about the PR industry’s growth in Asia.

“The things that keep me awake at night are the Internet and China,” WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorell has told PRWeek…. “Where once the big clients all came from North America – General Motors, Microsoft and so on – increasingly they will come from Asia, such as Korean industrial firms, Indian software companies and Chinese computer manufacturers.”

WPP is one of the world's largest communications services groups, employing 91,000 people working in over 2,000 offices in 106 countries. Hill & Knowlton, Burson-Marsteller and Ogilvy PR Worldwide are among WPP’s PR businesses.