Public Relations Society of India (PRSI), the national association of PR practitioners was established in 1958 to promote the recognition of public relations as a profession and to formulate and interpret to the public the objectives and the potentialities of public relations as a strategic management function.

The society functioned as an informal body till 1966 when it was registered under the Indian Societies Act XXVI of 1961, with headquarters in Mumbai. The father-figure of professional PR practitioners in India, Kali H. Mody, was the founder President of PRSI from 1966 to 1969. Chapters were launched in Mumbai, Delhi. Chennai and Kolkata till 1969.

Earlier in 1965, another professional body, the Public Relations Circle” was been founded and registered in Kolkata. It was the first ever association of professional PR practitioners in Eastern India and was doing commendable work. However, at the First All India PR Conference in 1968, at New Delhi members of the Public Relations Circle, Kolkata, unanimously decided to disband the regional organization to strengthen the national body, thus forming the Kolkata Chapter of PRSI, in 1969.

The management of the Public Relations society of India is vested in the National Council, consisting of representatives elected by all the regional chapters.

The members of the society are public relations practitioners from Multinationals, Govt,. Public and Private sector ,Academics and PR consultants .

Membership

The membership of the society is open to any person and also to any firm, body corporate or association of persons. Such membership take effect on admission and classification at the discretion of the National Council.

Each application for membership is forwarded by the Regional Chapter to the National Council for consideration with their recommendations regarding acceptance and classification, and forward the same to the Secretary-General for consideration of the National Council.

Each application for membership is forwarded by the Regional Chapter to the National Council for consideration with their recommendations regarding acceptance and classification, and forward the same to the Secretary-General for consideration of the National Council.

There are following classes of members :

The society is recognized as the national PR organization by the International Public Relations Association, and is one of the founder members of the Global Alliance of Public Relations and Communications Management.

The Regional Chapters of the society regularly organize seminars, lectures and discussions on various facets of public relations. In order to promote professional training, the chapters run, with the collaboration of universities and colleges, professional programme on public relations for students of management, PR, advertising, mass communication and journalism. PRSI today have 30 chapters and 3000 strong membership.

NATIONAL PUBLIC RELATIONS DAY

April 21, is a red-letter day in the history of Indian public relations. It is because the National public Relations Day is celebrated on this day all over the country since 1986.

The First All India Public Relations Conference was organised in Delhi on April 21, 1968. The theme of the conference was ‘Professional Approach’. This was a very significant public relations meet in our country, when a professional approach was given to public relations ( a change from publicity, press a gentry, information) besides adopting a Code of Ethics for PR profession. In fact that was the beginning of professional public relations in India.

Since then, PSRI had 26 All India PR conferences including the 9th PR World Congress in Bombay in 1982 and the first Asia Pacific PR Meet in Kolkata during January, 1998 and International Public Relations Conference at Bangalore in 2002.

The objective behind designating April 21 as National Public Relations Day is to focus attention on public relations function and public relations professionals in India who have an increasingly important role in the development of the country. Specific theme for the day is identified to organise events to highlight the issues selected in the theme.