A TOAST TO MEDIA

The first edition of the most comprehensive media, communication and design education rating, ranking and awards organised on Saturday, 26 April at JW Marriott, Juhu, Mumbai, under the aegis of Edutainment Show, brings the best and even less known media and design educational initiatives of India to the national platform.

While accepting to chair the Jury for this maiden initiative of its kind in India, the Zee Media Group CEO, Dr Bhaskar Das noted, ‘It takes a different kind of astuteness to realise that the role of Media goes beyond dispensing information and ‘breaking’ news. Any educational entity that is in the business of grooming future Media professionals has to be especially prudent in what they edify as instructive curriculum. Edutainment then becomes a great way forward to remain relevant and engaging. The Edutainment Awards is a meritorious initiative towards shaping the future of the Media industry.’

The former Chairman of MICA, Governing Body member of NID and advertising trainer of Ad Club courses, Gerson Da Cunha, was conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award in Communication Education. 

Interestingly, the citation to him read, ‘The communication fraternity of India can never forget his yeomen service in nurturing talent for the industry starting as early as the first course in copy-writing for the Advertising Club of Mumbai in 1959, then developing Mudra Institute of Communication, Ahmedabad, being 12 years its Governing Board member and 5 years its Chairman. Later, as Governing Council member of the Ahmedabad based National Institute of Design for four years, he helped evolve its Visual Communication courses. He has also led the framing of advertising education in Xavier Institute of Communication, Mumbai. Mr Da Cunha tutored Unilever Executives on advertising when working for Lintas London. He has given intellectual leadership to more than a dozen educational initiatives and events of Advertising Club and many institutes during his three decades of advertising career with Lintas in India. On a government study-grant to the School of Communication Arts, University of Sao Paolo, Brazil, Mr Da Cunha, taught for a year there, and developed a communication project which led him to be engaged with UNICEF in Brazil and USA for a decade.’

Mudra Institute of Communication (MICA) was adjudged the best communication school, Asian College of Journalism (ACJ) the best journalism school, Whistling Woods International (WWI) the best film school, Flame Pune and Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication Pune (SIMC-UG) as the two top under graduate media colleges of India, with National Institute of Design, Shristi Design School Bengaluru and DSK International School of Design Pune as the three top design schools of India.

The distinguished jury members with the likes of Bhaskar Das, Group CEO, Zee Media Corporation Ltd, Gokul Krishnamurthy- Editor Campaign India, Lajwanti D Souza- Managing Editor, Pagalguy, Dhunji S. Wadia- President, Everest Brand Solutions,Sanjeet Saha- Star TV, Nikhil Garth D’rozario- Film producer, Veena Gidwani, Brian Tellis-Director, Fountainhead Events, Rajesh Kejriwal- Founder & CEO, Kyoorius Group, Anand Gurnani- Animation Express, Pranjal Khindadiya- VP, Sony group, Head, Sony Pictures, Samar Khan- Film expert, Preeti Vyas- Chairwoman at VGC, Kanika Mohan Saxena- Marketing Head, Prime Focus, Ujaya Shakya- Chairman, Outreach Nepal Marcomm, and Narottam Aryal- Executive Director, KING’S College of Management. The awards provided ranking to colleges across India in various verticals like media and communication, journalism, advertising, Public Relations, design, photography and fashion studies, basis their academic quality. The top three colleges were felicitated with gold, silver and bronze trophies to mark them as the top destinations for media, communication and design.

Bhaskar Das, commenting on the initiative further noted, ‘In the last ten years, there has been a growing maturity in the domain of media and design education in India, especially since the onset of economic liberalization in India. There is the need to first benchmark the same with the best in India and later at Asian and world level. We start with the Indian benchmarking this time. And with a unique first-time ever attempt to develop ranking among the best institutes not just nationally, but also regionally and specialization wise.’

Few jury members noted how awarding regional and specialisation wise various institutes in media and design education space has brought to the forefront little known good institutes of the hinterland and not just the metro cities, and hence institutes of Goa, Kolkata, Manipal, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Guwahati, Odisha, Bihar, Lonavla, Coimbatore also have been awarded along with those from Mumbai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Bengaluru. Interestingly, there has been a lot of excitement among the first time award-winners coming from various parts of India. As best emerging media colleges, ILEAD of Kolkata, Calcutta Media Institute of the ABP group and Goenka Media College of Rajasthan Sammelani, Mumbai, were an excited lot being awarded in less than three years of existence.

India’s largest media and design focused educational exhibition and summit ‘The Edutainment Show’ in its second year presented the students with exciting career opportunities in creative fields and a chance to discuss their career paths with their idols. 

The exhibition that took place at the J W Marriott on 26th and 27th April, 2014, showcased numerous opportunities in the media, communication & design industry for students and professionals. The two-day event by Event Capital and Laqshya media witnessed 52 exhibitors and around 46 sessions by well-known educationalists and professionals on Media, Communication & Design industry, like BBDO Chairman Josy Paul, fashion designer Neeta Lulla, documentary film-maker Achyut Vaze, film-maker Somnath Sen, Laqshya Advertising CEO Sai Nagesh, and many more.

India’s media & entertainment industry is bracing itself for exciting times ahead as the sector is projected to grow at a CAGR of 14per cent to reach US$ 28.1 billion by 2015. The relevance of hands-on experience has taken over the era of bookish knowledge, so students who will shape the future need to look at specialised courses, training to be able to become thought leaders of tomorrow. Currently, India churns out only 1000 design graduates; hence there are only two designers for one million citizens.