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R&P Management communications win IPRA Golden World Awards 2003
MUMBAI: India-based R&P Management Communications is among 33 global winners of the Golden World Awards 2003 at the International Public Relations Association (IPRA) in New York.
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.
MUMBAI: In India’s fast-moving payments race, Visa has just swiped in a new leader. The company has named Suresh Sethi as its India country head, marking a key leadership shift as it sharpens its focus on digital payments growth in the market. Sethi steps into the role following his recent exit from Protean eGov Technologies, where he served as chief executive officer. He succeeds Sandeep Ghosh, who has moved on after more than four years at Visa to pursue an external opportunity.
The appointment comes at a time when Visa is doubling down on its expansion strategy across India and the wider region, deepening partnerships and accelerating adoption in an increasingly competitive digital payments ecosystem.
Sethi brings with him a broad, cross-market perspective shaped by decades of experience across corporate banking, retail financial services, mobile money and large-scale government technology initiatives. He began his career at Citigroup, where he spent 14 years working across India, Africa, South America and the United States, focusing on transaction banking services within the corporate bank.
His appointment signals a blend of institutional experience and market familiarity qualities that could prove critical as Visa navigates a landscape where fintech innovation, regulatory evolution and consumer adoption are all accelerating at once.
As digital payments in India continue to scale rapidly, the leadership change underscores a simple reality, in a market where every tap, scan and swipe counts, who leads the charge can matter just as much as the technology itself.
