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The changing face of Public Relations

Public Relations (PR) is changing. Traditional PR, as practiced in the last 35 years, has witnessed a shift in the digital era. PR professionals over the age of 50 have witnessed this journey and have embraced the fundamental changes that have taken place in the profession. So, for the sake of records, it will be interesting for new PR professionals to know about this journey.

At one time, PR departments were mostly found in the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs). The work of this department was largely administrative in nature like to book travel tickets of senior officials, arranging transportation, take care of visiting officials and accompany them, to get publish the press releases of their organisation in media, which essentially meant newspapers in those days.

The 1970s and 1980s were a different time for the PR industry. There was not much scope for creativity for the PR Professionals. In Gujarat, public sector enterprises such as GNFC, GSFC, GMDC, GSEC as well as public sector banks such as SBI, BoB, SBS, etc. had public relations departments working and doing what could be called administrative work. There was no scope for much freedom to these PR Professionals for providing critical inputs to the management.

In the private sector, there were few PR companies operating in India in the 80s. Among them, Good Relations was taking lead at that time. In 1984, after the late Rajiv Gandhi came to power, the outline of the PR industry in India started taking shape. During the time of the late Rajiv Gandhi, the Department of Communication was totally transformed which is known today as BSNL. There is nothing wrong in saying that Rajiv Desai, who returned home in 1985 at the invitation of the late Rajiv Gandhi designed the modern outline of the PR industry for MNCs in India. Because, Rajiv Desai had extensive experience of a public relations companies in America.

In 1991, the then Narasimha Rao government started implementing the policy of economic liberalization. As a result, global brands like Pepsi, Coca Cola, Citi Bank, Star Network entered India. Rajiv Desai founded the Indian Public Affairs Network (IPAN), which worked to provide PR consultancy to such MNCs in India. Within a short time of the establishment of IPAN, it was merged with Hindustan Thomson Associates (HTA), the top Ad Agency of India at that time, and HTA became the first agency to have a PR firm in the field of advertising. Today, HTA is known by the name of J Walter Thomson (JWT).

The public relations industry in India started to grow in the period from 1991 to 1996. During this period, a number of international brands set up their offices in Mumbai and Delhi. It is important to note, operating specialty of multinationals; in that, these companies place significant emphasis on two important things before investing or arriving in any country – one, hiring a legal firm and the other is a PR firm. With the advent of multinational companies’ era in India, the concept of public relations became broader and more comprehensive. It also included the liasioning with the authorities and known as Corporate Affairs or Public Affairs. However it was a part of Public Relations.

The year 2000 was important for communication in India as Fax machines and pagers exited, the internet, cellular phones entered in the country. The paradigm was shifted in day to day communication. With the continuous growth of the internet in India, communication through email became easier and simpler. Around 2013, smart phones arrived in India on a large scale. We can see the multiple effects of this today. Within a few years of the arrival of smart phones, the use of apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, Snap chat became a part of daily phone communication needs.

The year 2020 has witnessed radical changes in communication and technology across the world. Because of the global impact of Corona, people were forced to work with the help of smart phones during times of lockdown. Around 2015, the word ‘digital’ became widely popular among the masses, the direct impact of which was seen in the Corona era. In the digital age, information is being bombarded from all sides and technological skills have become indispensable to survive in it. Geographical distances have become virtually shorter in the digital age. It has become easy for parents to have daily conversations with their children living abroad for hours. During this period, the use of social media platforms like Face book, Instagram, Twitter started increasing.

The digital age has brought the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI), with public relations professionals increasingly using GPTs. Today, in 2025, the world has gone crazy for AI, with new applications being invented along with it.

Technology has proven to be a blessing for PR professionals. However, like the other side of the coin, this technology is also having a negative impact on the values ​​of human life. With the advent of the Internet, automated communication began and verbal communication was largely eliminated. PR professionals have also seen a decline in creativity due to digital automation. Even though AI is gaining ground, it lacks Human Intelligence (HI). Scientists from several countries of the world are quietly working on HI today. If HI becomes ubiquitous in the future, we can hope to create a beautiful era.