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May 14, 2001
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Money > Business Headlines > Report May 14, 2001 |
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DoD to engage PR firm to handle VSNL sell-off exerciseMamata Singh & Thomas K Thomas With public-private partnerships being the new buzzword in government, a government department is considering adding the services of a PR outfit to the Press Information Bureau. In a bid to counter allegations of 'lack of transparency' in the divestment process, the department of divestment is planning to appoint public relations firms to handle the publicity for sale of big-ticket companies. The DoD is currently in the process of identifying a PR firm to handle the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited account. Perfect Relations, Sobhagya and Ad Factors among others, have bid for the account. "Experience has shown that the government is not a very good disseminator of information," say officials in the DoD which is known for not being wary of excessive publicity. And as the Bharat Aluminium Company case has shown, there is a great need and scope for improving information dissemination to the public as well as to the stakeholders in the process. There was widespread feeling in the case of Balco divestment that the government could have avoided a lot of problems if only the entire process and the decisions taken had been explained to the workers and to the general public in greater detail. Therefore, the government has decided to hand over the task to information dissemination to agencies 'qualified to handle the job', they add. Just how useful the process will be, is however doubtful. The DoD had appointed a PR firm for Balco too but it does not seem to have made much of a difference to the entire process. As of now, VSNL is the only company for which we are looking for a PR firm, say officials. "We will look at the results and see whether appointment of these firms helps in any way. If the exercise is found to be useful, we will appoint PR firms for other companies also," they add. Powered by YOU MAY ALSO WANT TO READ:
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