MAM
PR Professionals clinch ICC gig, get inked into a century-old power circle
MUMBAI: It’s not every day that a PR firm bags a client older than independent India. But PR Professionals (PRP), the Gurugram-based communications powerhouse, just pulled off a press-worthy coup by being appointed as the official PR partner for the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) — a 100-year-old juggernaut of Indian industry headquartered in Kolkata. Talk about prestige meets press kits.
The announcement came on 7 April 2025, and let’s just say, the champagne corks in Gurugram likely flew higher than ICC’s GDP targets. With this mandate, PRP enters the rarefied boardrooms of economic policy influencers, industrial tycoons and policymakers — and yes, probably a lot of spreadsheets too.
“We are honored to partner with the Indian Chamber of Commerce, a 100-year-old institution that has significantly contributed to India’s economic landscape…” said PR Professionals founder & MD Sarvesh Tiwari in a statement that managed to be both humble and headline-ready.
Founded in 1925, ICC isn’t just another acronym in a crowded sea of business forums. It’s the OG of Indian commerce bodies — the one that’s been around since pre-partition, pre-GDP and certainly pre-Whatsapp. Under the presidency of Abhyuday Jindal (yes, of Jindal Stainless Ltd fame), ICC has kept its relevance sharper than a budget analyst’s pencil.
With senior office bearers like Brij Bhushan Agarwal of Shyam Metalics and Parth Neotia of Ambuja Neotia Group, this is a chamber with more corporate weight than a B-school case study collection. And it’s not just about boardroom banter — ICC pumps out macroeconomic studies, state investment climate reports, and policy recommendations that find their way into budget files and bureaucratic briefs.
In 2024, ICC celebrated its centenary at Kolkata’s Town Hall with the likes of Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy gracing the dais — because if you’re going to age gracefully, you might as well throw a bash with billionaires.
As for PR Professionals, this isn’t their first rodeo. Since its launch in 2011, the firm has grown from a modest agency into a 12-office Indian PR titan with six international outposts. From infrastructure to aviation, railways to public sector behemoths — they’ve handled it all, often with flair, and always with media mileage.
This partnership with ICC adds another feather to PRP’s already flamboyant cap. It’s a move that underscores their expertise in crafting complex narratives, managing large-scale mandates, and making even government jargon sparkle.
In PR terms, this is the equivalent of bagging a blockbuster film after a string of indie hits.
Strategic messaging? Check.
National economic visibility? Double check.
It’s a marriage of old money and new media — and one that’s bound to make noise in all the right corridors.
Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
