MAM
Concept PR scores twin hat-trick @ America’s PR World Awards
MUMBAI: In a twin hat-trick, Concept Public Relations India Limited has won gold for its not-for-profit public service campaigns for the third year in succession and bagged three awards in this year’s edition of America’s PR World Awards.
#BoomCityDoomCity campaign, strategized by Concept PR focused on creating awareness for saving hills, mangroves and wetlands in Mumbai Metropolitan region (MMR) has bagged Gold under Milestone of the Year and Achievement of the Year categories at the 9th Annual PR World Awards instituted by Log Angeles-based SVUS (Silicon Valley United States). The agency also won Bronze under Agency of the Year list. Concept PR is the only Indian agency to figure in the 9th Annual PR World Awards list.
The Mumbai head-quartered agency has earlier won Gold for its #MissionMumbaiLocal (2017), highlighting the plight of the suburban train passengers, and #SaveParsikHill (2018) which dealt with the need to preserve the hills in MMR.
All these communication campaigns have been executed on behalf of Public Relations Council of India (PRCI) as part of its public awareness project. PRCI is a pan-India organisation of Corporate Communication, PR agency, Marketing Communication and HR professionals and mass communication teachers and students.
Commenting on the awards, Ashish Jalan, Director and CEO of Concept PR said: “It is a great honour for our team and it inspires us to scale many more peaks. Our emphasis on building a proficient team and focussing on making Concept a happy place to work at, is the sole reason for these laudable accomplishments. We thank the SVUS PR World and their jury for recognising our work. We also thank PRCI for their continued confidence in Concept PR.”
Acknowledging the awards, BN Kumar, Executive Director of Concept PR, said: “Global recognitions do not come easy. Our teams have put in a lot of hard work in researching, fact finding and worked selflessly as we launched the campaign on Earth Day in association with Mumbai Press Club. We must thank NGOs such as Shree Ekvira Aai Pratishtan (SEAP) and Navi Mumbai First for their support in mobilising awareness. Media too played a big role in spreading the message and scores of environmental lovers for their unstinted support.”
M B Jayaram, Chief Mentor and Chairman Emeritus of PRCI, said: “Team Concept PR has devised innovative ways to deliver hard-hitting messages stating that the Boom City of Mumbai will be doomed if environmental care is neglected. Our only interest is to make the people and the authorities shed their apathy.”
The coveted annual SVUS PR World Awards programme encompasses the world’s best in recognizing public relations, marketing, corporate communications, investor relations, and business development professionals, teams, departments, and achievements from every major industry in the world. Organizations from all over the world including public and private, for-profit and non-profit, largest to smallest and new start-ups, have submitted their nominations.
Brands
Reserve Bank of India cancels Paytm Payments Bank licence
Central bank cites compliance failures; curbs tighten as wind-up looms
MUMBAI: India’s banking watchdog delivered its sharpest blow yet to Paytm Payments Bank, cancelling its licence and effectively ending its ability to operate as a bank under the law.
The Reserve Bank of India said the entity can no longer conduct banking business under the Banking Regulation Act, citing concerns that its affairs were not being run in the interest of depositors or the public and that it had failed to meet licence conditions.
The move escalates a crackdown that has been building for months. The bank had already been barred from onboarding new customers since March 11, 2022, and later faced restrictions on deposits, credit and wallet top-ups. In January 2024, the central bank ordered it to stop accepting fresh deposits, pointing to persistent non-compliance, including lapses in customer due diligence, use of funds and technology systems.
Operationally, the bank is now on a tight leash. It may process withdrawals of existing deposits and facilitate loan referrals through banking correspondents, but it cannot take fresh deposits.
The central bank said it would apply to the high court to wind up the bank.
Paytm sought to ringfence the fallout. In a regulatory filing, it said the licence cancellation applies to Paytm Payments Bank Limited, a separate entity, and should not be attributed to One 97 Communications. It added that there is no exposure or material business arrangement with the bank and that it operates independently, without Paytm’s board or management involvement.
“As informed earlier, Paytm (One 97 Communications Limited) and its services, which have been operating without interruption, will continue to operate uninterrupted. These include the Paytm app, Paytm UPI, Paytm Gold and all other services offered by its subsidiaries and associated companies,” the company said.
The distinction may reassure users of the app ecosystem, but the regulator’s verdict is unequivocal. After years of warnings, caps and curbs, the payments bank experiment at Paytm is being shut down—decisively, and with little room left to manoeuvre.
