A panel comprising of former chief election commissioner OP Rawat, advertising veteran Ramesh Narayan, and former Prasar Bharati member AK Tandon will look into the content and propriety of government advertisements to check their commitments according to Supreme Court guidelines; as reported by Economic Times
Congratulating his dear friend Ramesh Narayan, another advertising veteran Srinivasan Swamy, Chairman RK Swamy on Facebook said, “Very proud to see my good friend Ramesh Narayan in a Government-appointed Committee as directed by the Supreme Court to monitor and regulate the content of all Government advertising. You can’t find a more balanced and competent person than him. Congratulations Ramesh. #WellDeserved”.
The new members of the committee include extremely senior and experienced veterans of advertising such as Ramesh Narayan, Founder, Canco Advertising who is also the Vice-President and Area Director for the International Advertising Association (IAA), APAC region and AK Tandon who has served as the media advisor to former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
ET also reported that the committee will not only monitor and check print advertisements, but will also seek reports from I&B ministry and the National Broadcasters Association in identifying violations in advertisements on electronic media. The committee has been asked to send monthly reports to the ministry in this regard.
In April 2016, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had constituted a committee comprising of BB Tandon, the former chief election commissioner, Rajat Sharma, the chairperson, and editor-in-chief of India TV, and Piyush Pandey, the executive chairperson and creative director of the advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather, India and South Asia, to see that guidelines set for government advertisements by the Supreme Court are followed.
In 2015, the SC directed the central government to constitute a three-member committee “consisting of persons with unimpeachable neutrality and impartiality” to regulate the issue of public advertisement In a notification issued last week, the I&B ministry secretary Amit Khare.
In 2016, Tandon-led committee had flagged the expenditure of AAP in govt ads, following a complaint from Congress leader Ajay Maken on the issue. It had also directed the AAP to reimburse the money spent on such ads and had said the Delhi government should assess its expenditure.
