ISB Hyderabad Holds First Media Conclave

ISB Hyderabad Holds First Media Conclave - Drishticon

However, he was critical about the government's inability to provide a conducive environment to encourage entrepreneurship. In typical and inimitable style, Kakar said that the media had no role to play in positioning India as a brand. "Let us not create hypes, let us just surprise pleasantly.

Let us focus on brand Indians, not on a faceless India." He urged the media to showcase the journey of collective Indians, like Narayana Murthy, Sania Mirza, Sachin Tendulkar, and even the movie industry, which represents Brand India. "Don't take Brand India for granted. Do your bit," he said.

According to Arnab Goswami, Editor-in-Chief, Times Now, the "domain experience of the media, its competitive instinct, its logic, its linguistic experience" will help take Brand India abroad, and it applies to any other industry. Arnab said that Indians today are willing to experiment and know how to change with the rule of the game. That gives us the necessary edge in global positioning. He was, however, sceptical about the inorganic growth of the Indian Television industry and expressed faith in the "sheer force of the idea" that will take India places.

V. Sunil, Creative Director, Aontheweb, talked about a serious disconnect that Indians have with regard to knowing what is 'cool' and 'in'. "There is an identity crisis as far as Brand India is concerned," he said. Sunil said that the problems are to do with poorly branded products and services, which are globally uncompetitive, a dearth of creative people which leads to an insecure management, which again, leads to the typical "babu" mindset. He said that we need to come out of that "jargon is king' mindset and inject fresh blood, and focus on experience design if we really want to promote Brand India internationally.

"Where is the need to market India? The action is happening here. Why do we need to sell ourselves abroad?" asked Vikas Gupta, Chief Marketing Officer of the Ananda Bazaar Patrika Group. Gupta called for all Indians to get over "the white man's approval" hangover because New India has the power of young minds at a time when in countries like Germany the population is decreasing every year. The media, he felt, should "be fair in displaying the opportunities available here, instead of indulging in sensationalism. The media should do its bit by ascertaining India abroad," he said.

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Contributed by -
Ms. Bhuvana Ramalingam,
Director - Communications,
Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.

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