MRUCI Elects Shashi Sinha as Chairman and Shailesh Gupta as Vice Chairman

Sinha takes over the mantle from Pratap Pawar, chairman, Sakal Media Group.

Media Research Users Council India (MRUCI) held its 27th Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Thursday, September 2, 2021 via Video Conferencing, taking into consideration every member’s health and safety and also the current restrictions due to the pandemic.

Shashi Sinha, CEO - India, IPG Mediabrands and Shailesh Gupta, director, Jagran Prakashan have been unanimously elected as MRUCI’s Chairman and Vice Chairman, respectively. The announcement was made at MRUCI’s Board meeting which was held shortly after its AGM.

Sinha takes over the mantle from Pratap Pawar, chairman, Sakal Media Group, who served as MRUCI’s Chairman for two consecutive terms i.e. from 2019-20 and 2020-21.

While handing over the mantle, Pawar said, “We faced some challenging times due to the global pandemic, but I am glad we are soon returning to normalcy. With the change in name from Media

Research Users Council (MRUC) to Media Research Users Council India (MRUCI), and the modification of IRS questionnaire, we will not only further boost our national stature and representation, but also successfully meet the fast evolving needs and expectations of our stakeholders. I thank all our Board Members and Stakeholders for all their support and I give my best wishes to Shashi Sinha and all the new Board Members.”

Shashi Sinha in his vote of thanks said, “I thank Mr Pawar for his selfless leadership and valuable guidance especially in these unprecedented times. MRUCI has long played a very crucial role in providing the industry with a reliable, robust and realistic data, and now more than ever, the industry looks toward us to meet their expectations in maintaining and propagating the highest possible standards of integrity, fairness and reliability in media research. As our Country slowly resumes to normalcy, our priority will be to begin the IRS fieldwork at the soonest, in consideration with the ground realities.”

New members have also been appointed to the Board of Governors, viz:

1.Pratap Pawar, chairman, Sakal Media Group

2. Dhruba Mukherjee, CEO, ABP

3. Jayant Mammen Mathew, executive editor & director, MM Publications

Shashi Sinha is actively involved in various industry bodies such as the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI), Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC), The Ad Club, Broadcast Audience Research Council India (BARC). He is an alumni of IIT Kanpur and IIM Bangalore. An industry veteran with over 30 years of experience, where he has built a highly awarded team of professionals and organizations that today form the country’s leading media network.

Shailesh Gupta, is the director, Jagran Prakashan. Over the last 25 years Shailesh has provided a new dimension to Jagran’s marketing strategy, and has been at the heart of driving transformational change at the Jagran group. He held several positions at leading industry bodies - elected as the youngest member of the Managing Committee of the Audit Bureau of Circulation for the year 2004-05, he was the ABC Chairman in 2012-13 and the Chairman of INS during 2019-20. He has also been conferred with the “Most Talented CMO of India” by the World Marketing Congress in 2014, awarded the “Youngest Entrepreneur Of The Year” by Rotary Club, India, and was the recipient of the “Excellence Award for Communication and Mass Entertainment” By Merchants’ Chamber of U.P.