April 21 is a red-letter day in the history of Indian public relations. It is because the National Public Relations Day is celebrated on this day all over the country since 1986.
The First All India Public Relations Conference was organised in Delhi on April 21, 1968. The theme of the conference was ‘Professional Approach’. This was a very significant public relations meet in our country, when a professional approach was given to public relations (a change from publicity, press a gentry, information) besides adopting a Code of Ethics for PR profession. In fact that was the beginning of professional public relations in India.
Since then, PSRI had 26 All India PR conferences including the 9th PR World Congress in Bombay in 1982 and the first Asia Pacific PR Meet in Kolkata during January, 1998 and International Public Relations Conference at Bangalore in 2002.
The objective behind designating April 21 as National Public Relations Day is to focus attention on public relations function and public relations professionals in India who have an increasingly important role in the development of the country. Specific theme for the day is identified to organise events to highlight the issues selected in the theme.
