Andre Purushottam is MRUC chairman

Andre Purushottam is MRUC chairman

MUMBAI: Mahindra & Mahindra‘s Andre Purushottam has taken over from TV Today CEO G Krishnan as Media Research Users Council (MRUC) chairman.

Prior to this, The Mumbai Mantra (Mahindra & Mahindra‘s entertainment arm) CEO was MRUC vice chairman.

Purushottam, who got the unanimous support of the board, will have the tough task of making MRUC "more relevant" and "more representative" of the advertising, media and marketing industry.

Stepping into the vice chairman‘s position, meanwhile, is Lokmat Group director Bharat Kapadia.

With the new elections, the most urgent mandate of the governing council now will be to achieve a single currency for the readership survey.

Says Purushottam, "Our immediate agenda will be to lead to a successful merger of the IRS and NRS. We will also look at ensuring that across media, be it internet, radio and out-of-home, far more robust research will come out that will be cost effective and useful for the industry. Our approach will be to engage all stakeholders to contribute both their ideas and their money to make this possible."

Earlier in August, the MRUC and National Readership Studies Council (NRSC) had passed the relevant resolutions at their respective Governing Council meetings to support the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) and the National Readership Survey (NRS) merger that could set the tone for a single currency in India.

MRUC has been set up by agencies, advertisers and media houses to determine and conduct research required for the assessment of various media for advertising. NRSC, on the other hand, has been constituted by INS, AAAI and ABC for the purpose of carrying out readership surveys in India.