‘World should learn about PR from India’

A lecture on ‘Getting to Leadership in Public Relations’ was organised by the Hyderabad chapter of the Public Relations Society of India (PRSI) at the Telugu University on Tuesday.

“Though no country has provided a successful model of public relations in the world, global PR has a thing or two to learn from India which has a robust culture of public debate,” observed Dr Gregor Halff, professor of corporate communication practice and associate dean, Singapore Management University (SMU).

Dr Gregor Halff, the chair-elect, Global Alliance for PR and Communication Management, said, “Global PR has to learn from India because it has a solid culture of public debate, which is very expressive in nature.”

He also complimented the PR models of the United Kingdom and Vietnam. “While the UK has high quality of debate, the communist country (Vietnam) engages in a candid retrospection to raise the professional standards,” he added.

He called upon the global PR and communication networks to bridge the huge gap between “aspirations” and “actions” of PR practitioners.

The guest of honour, Prof. Karanam Narender, chairman, Board of Studies, Department of Communication and Journalism, Osmania University, made it clear that PR practitioners and academicians live in their different own worlds.

“Global forums should try to bridge the huge gap,” he said, adding that corporates should provide training for the professionals on continuous basis.

Dr CV Narasimha Reddy, editor, Public Relations Voice, pointed out three weaknesses in the PR area. “Our PR education is weak. Induction and in-service training is nil and there is no emphasis on PR research.

International organisations like Global Alliance should come to the rescue of us to save the situation,” he said.