Indiantelevision.com Team

(17 September 2007 3:30 pm)

MUMBAI: The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has appointed Bennett Coleman and Co. Ltd executive president Bhaskar Das as chairman of its board. The decision was arrived at during the Council's board meeting held on 13 September.

Mudra Communications MD and CEO Madhukar Kamath was elected vice-chairman and Tata Motors President (Passenger Car Business Unit) Rajiv Dube was re-appointed as the treasurer.

The other members of the new board of governors are include: Advertisers Narendra Ambwani (Johnson & Johnson), Nitin Paranjpe (Hindustan Unilever), Shantanu Khosla (Procter & Gamble Hygiene & Health Care); people from the media Vikram Kaushik (Tata Sky Ltd.), G Krishnan (TV Today), I Venkat (Eenadu); representatives from advertising agencies Pranesh Misra (Lintas India), Arvind Sharma (Leo Burnett), Srinivasan Swamy (RK Swamy BBDO); representatives from allied professions like Dilip Cherian (Perfect Relations), Dhananjay Keskar (ICFAI Business School), Ram Poddar (The Tobacco Institute of India), Partha Rakshit (AC Nielsen Research Services).

During the year 2006-07, the Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) deliberated on 140 complaints against ads of which 78 were upheld.

During the year, close ties were established with the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), the European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA), and the Advertising Education Forum (AEF).

Outgoing chairman Shantanu Khosla said, "As I hand over the chairmanship in the able hands of Bhaskar Das, I wish to say this past one year gave me an excellent opportunity to witness first hand, ASCI delivering on its mandate of accepting fair advertising practices in the best interest of the consumer. I take this opportunity to wholeheartedly thank the board of governors, Board Consultative Committee, Consumer Complaints Council, and the Secretariat team of ASCI, for their valuable support. Gualbert Pereira, our secretary general since December 1993 will be retiring shortly and he will be succeeded by Alan Collaco."

As a member of the board of governors since September 2005, Das has provided active support to the self-regulation in advertising movement.