The Public Relations Society of India, a national professional body of PR practitioners was established in 1958 with Kali H. Mody as Founder President, as a move to formulate and interpret the objectives and potentialities of Public Relations as a profession and also to undertake professional development programs.
The Public Relations Society of India functioned as an informal body till 1966 when it was registered under the Indian Societies Act. The father figure of Public Relations profession, Farrok S. Mullah who became the President of the professional body in 1966 left an indelible mark on the map of Indian public relations by organizing the First All India Public Relations Conference on April 21, 1968 in New Delhi. It was inaugurated by the then Speaker, Lok Sabha, Dr. Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy.
The theme of the conference was ‘Professional Approach’. On the same day three Presidents of Foreign Public Relations Associations viz., Public Relations Society of America; International Public Relations Association, London and the European Federation of Public Relations Association attended this conference and enabled the Indian public relations to develop global contacts.
One of the highlights of this day was the adoption of the ‘Code of Athens’, the internationally accepted Code of Ethics for Indian public relations professionals as presented by Dr. Albert Oeckl, the then President, International Public Relations Association. The sapling of professional body planted by Farrok S. Mullah at the First All India PR Conference grew into a mighty 53 year old public relations tree with 33 Regional Chapters and 32 All India Public Relations Conferences, the last one held in Kolkata during December, 2010.
Keeping in view the significance of April 21, 1968 the then National President, Public Relations Society of India Dr. C. V. Narasimha Reddi gave a call to observe the day as National Public Relations Day in 1986 which is being celebrated every year with different themes. As National Public Relations Day completed 25 years, the Silver Jubilee Year of the Day is being observed this year with the theme “Ethics in Governance and Business: Public Relations Perspective”.