NEW DELHI: Giridhari Mohanty has succeeded Frank Noronha as DAVP director-general.

Noronha has moved to the Press Information Bureau as Director General. Both officers are from the 1982 batch of the Indian Information Service.

Mohanty, who takes charge of the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP), was in All India Radio news as director general, a post he held since July 2010. Since September 2011, Mohanty was also a member of the Advisory Group on Media and Human Rights established by the National Human Rights Commission.

Coming a year before the General Elections, the DAVP post becomes significant as the Government will use all the resources at its command to send out advertisements to news media about the government’s achievements, particularly in the programmes related to the rural areas. Mohanty’s experience in AIR will come in useful in this regard.

DAVP currently sends out ads worth more than Rs 7.50 billion every year. Some of the autonomous bodies also route their advertisements through DAVP.

Noronha, who was appointed Director General of DAVP in 2009, told indiantelevision.com that the transfer was normal since he had completed four years in DAVP.