Organised by the International Public Relations Association and sponsored by Dai Nippon Printing Co Ltd, awards received entries from Australia, Canada, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Poland, Republic of Korea, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Turkey, UK and the USA. Thirty three programmes from 14 different countries have won top prizes for excellence in public relations.

R&P Management Communications won the award for a four year awareness campaign on plant biotechnology. Catering to agriculture, the campaign is designed to make farmers aware of the benefits of plant biotechnology, create an environment to make the biotech option available to them and promote acceptance through the spread of science-based information about plant biotechnology through multiple channels.

The campaign used the country's focus on IT and software to highlight biotechnology's potential in India with the positioning: IT Today, Biotechnology Tomorrow.

Says R&P Management Communications, managing director Roger C.B. Pereira, "I am delighted that our entry 'Biotechnology in Agriculture - Generating Public Support & Acceptance" has won an award in the IPRA Golden World Awards. This is the second time we have been honoured with this prestigious award. We had earlier won the award for our social communications TV serial Humraahi, which also went on to win the UN Award."

The competition's international jury, composed of 43 senior practitioners from 20 countries, adjudicated 219 entries in London on 5 September 2003. Criteria used by the jury to examine each entry included the competence and quality demonstrated in terms of research, planning, execution and evaluation, the clarity and coherence of messages, creativity and ethics, as well as local conditions in the country of origin.

Each year the jury votes for one of the Category Awards winners to go forward as overall winner. The Grand Prize for Excellence will be announced and presented by Dai Nippon Printing Co Ltd chief executive Yoshitoshi Kitajima, at a gala GWA dinner in New York in February 2004.