Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed. – Abraham Lincoln. With that being said, public relations has drastically changed over the years, but through all this, the definition has remained unchanged. Public relations, literally means to establish and maintain a positive relationship with the public by constantly communicating with them. It is all about looking after the organization’s reputation, and maintaining a good will. Successful public relations has to do with recognizing amazing ideas and how much value they hold. In order for businesses or brands to generate good press, they have to come up with fresh new concepts on a regular basis to launch their products and build up hype among the public for the same. Many analyses that have been conducted have shown that raw ideas of high quality have generated and increased sales. Moreover, people who are good at coming up with PR ideas aren’t just naturally creative, but they are on the constant run of analyzing the media. They look out for the current trends in the media, and try to make connections with them. Public Relation professionals are said to be naturally creative and effective communicators. They are well versed with the ongoing media affairs and the trending digital culture. Being in the public relations department is all about the chaos; the constant effort to maintain your organization’s image as a whole, to manage crisis on a bad news day, to spend time writing press releases, and so much more. To call public relations a mundane job would be very harsh, unless you’ve been forced to choose it as your career; if you are someone who enjoys working in the PR department, it definitely isn’t a routine job, because you don’t know what to expect out of those press releases, or maintaining the public image of the organization, you have to be prepared for anything and everything that the media throws at you. You have to be on your toes all the time, because unexpected things happen anytime. However, at times it can get quite tiresome and hectic, and lead to increasing rates of attrition. To mitigate attrition, firstly you need to find a balance with compensations. Every office has their own set of uniqueness. Different group of employees expect different benefits. Hence, some would prefer professional development training, while there are others who want networking opportunities. Focusing on the benefits that actually empower your employees quality of life will help in boosting the employees’ morale to work harder. Secondly, the next best option is to ask your employees what will keep them happy and loyal to the organization. It’s always good to arrange a formal or informal discussion with your employees, so that they can share their set of problems in a more individual setting. Looking for people who are fit for the role of handling public relations is quite a task, although it is to be noted that there definitely isn’t a shortage of talent in India, because many talented individuals tend to get neglected due to the lack of awareness and knowledge in regards with the scope and existence of PR as a career option, and not forgetting the taboo of working as a PR professional. The rise in the number of mass media colleges in India – Mumbai Metropolitan region alone has 100 plus institutions - is a positive sign as they are trying to incorporate new programs, such as interning at agencies in different cities, having a study tour abroad and attending workshops with international faculty; hence many talented individuals now get a platform to hone their skills and gain knowledge which was not the scene when we entered this profession almost three decades back. All in all, public relations is something that needs to be dealt with utmost care, because the goodwill and the public image of the organization is at stake in the hands of the PR professionals. (The author is Additional General Manager -corporate communication- at NTPC Ltd)

PR, a mundane job? By Ravindran.K

In India, agriculture is not just an ancient mother occupation but the basis of modern business and market prosperity. It has also been the foundation on which PSA or public service communication in the fields of Health, mother and child care, and others developed. The Grow More Food campaign begun in the early years of independence required the refashioning of the war time ‘publicity and propaganda ‘machinery like the radio, documentary film division, PIB into development communication vehicles. Understanding the importance of face to face communication with farmers and the rural people, the five year plan publicity directorate was started in the I&B ministry. The ‘Takkavi loan movement (though it became notorious for misuse, later), for minor irrigation and the need for transferring farm technology from lab to land, the early demonstration farms, the training and visits scheme for farmers became part of the Farm Extension units of the agriculture departments. The 1960s witnessed some of the worst droughts leading to enormous food shortages. The country became heavily dependent upon concessional food aid from the US. It was the period of ‘ship -to -mouth’, meaning the food supply to ration shops was dependent upon the arrival of food shipments at ports. The development of agriculture became the top political and economic priority for two reasons. The political communication of the times, like prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri’s famous slogan: ‘grow two grains where one grew before’ resonated with the message of high yielding varieties of wheat, rice and other crops. In order to gain political endorsement of these high yielding varieties, the then agriculture, food, irrigation, community development, cooperation minister C. Subramaniam converted the enormous lawns of his Delhi ministerial bungalow for growing the high yielding variety of wheat, developed by Norman Borlaugh. He would invite legislators to this urban wheat farm demonstrate its effectiveness. I was lucky to have been with the agriculture ministry in those days as the assistant campaign officer, later posted to Bihar to work as the communication officer of the Bihar Famine Relief Committee headed by Jayapraksh Narain. The river Kosi command area development in north Bihar had registered its green revolution way back in 1967-68, in the same way the irrigated areas of undivided Punjab had recorded. Posted to Karnataka in early 1970s, I was made a member of the state government’s team implementing the new schemes for small farmers,dry land development, Dairy, and other so-called subsidiary occupations, as part of prime minister Indira Gandhi’s anti-poverty programmes. At first hand I was able to observe the lab to land public service communication as a communicator participant. The radio AIR played a stellar role in the green revolution saga. Driven by the commitment of a senior AIR official Krishnamurthy and the farm extension units personnel, the Radio Rural Forums were set up in most in strategic rural areas. The farmers were encouraged to gather around the radio beaming farming related programmes in which real farmers exchanged their experience and sought answers from agri experts for their queries. The AIR farm units Outside Broadcast (OB) team would go out to record the discussions taking place among the farmers groups and selectively rebroadcast them for the benefit of RRForums. The era also saw a radio revolution as the government subsidised the sale of medium wave transistor sets for Rs 70 or less, becoming really a mass media. The effectiveness of RRFs was such that when the farmers in south India grew a high yielding variety of rice, applied chemical fertilisers, pesticides as per the advice coming though the Radio, they called the rice variety as Radio Rice. The concurrent communication research that went with this movement was very impactful. In fact, the name of American academic Prof. Everett Rogers is worth mentioning here. It was his research among farmers in US that gave us the phrase ‘early Innovators’ or early adopters of new technology who help in the spread of new practices that go to change social norms. This research was widely used in designing health related communication. In fact, he came to India and personally conducted research in ‘social marketing’ of family planning methods including the use of condoms. There is an urgent need for the communication lessons learnt in achieving food self sufficiency (now we are significant exporters rice and wheat) in India should be reactivated and brought into play now for assisting the farmers for coping with the challenges of climate change. The farmers are required to adjust to climate change from season to season; drought prone areas are getting wet, while wet areas are going dry. The hot, dry days in a year are increasing raising the risk factors for farmers. The farm technologies that are being developed for dealing with freak weather have to reach the farmer more promptly. (The author is a former Govt of India spokesperson and ex-adviser to PMs)

Communication for Agriculture. By S NARENDRA