What is brand India?
It is a different thing to different people, if we go by the speakers at a media conclave hosted by the Media Club at the Indian School of Business (ISB).
While Ajit Rangnekar, deputy dean of ISB, described it as a totally private sector creation, Rajeev Sawhney, president of Reliance Entertainment, said that it was a myth, perpetuated by the media.
Brand India, according to Sawhney, is an acronym of BBB - Bollywood, Bangalore and Bhatia (NRI making it good abroad). " Bollywood gossip has as much as 24% of newspaper coverage share and 31% of television pie. Three fourth of the international media reports outsourcing and fear of loss of jobs when it comes to India. The other fixation for the media are NRIs, whom I call the Bhatias. The latest fixation being Lakshmi Mittal,” he said.
On the other hand, ace ad filmmaker Prahalad Kakar said that it was the professional entrepreneur, the single-minded industrious community outside India, "who is the actual brand". For Niranjan Rajadhyaksha, former deputy editor of Business World, the success of micro units and the goodwill created by hundreds of entrepreneurs and ordinary Indians is brand India. "There is an identity crisis as far as brand India is concerned," V Sunil, creative director of Aontheweb, said.
According to Vikas Gupta, chief marketing officer of the Ananda Bazaar Patrika Group, there is no need to bother about brand India. “Where is the need to market India? The action is happening here. Why do we need to sell ourselves abroad?” he asked.
Nevertheless, as the topic of the media conclave being “The Role of Media in Taking Brand India Beyond Indian Shores,” Arnab Goswami, editor-in-chief of Times Now, said that the domain experience of the media, its competitive instinct, its logic and its linguistic experience would help take brand India abroad.
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