A veteran name in public relations, Mrs Bela Rajan started off with an education and early career in law. Back then, there were very few PR specialised courses, and if there were, then those just used to be a few. It was at that time that Bela took up journalism. The interest Bela had in the field of PR was further fueled and sparked when she became the coordinator of the 9th Public Public Relations World Conference held in Mumbai at that time.

The 80s was a time when no one knew much about public relations. People had different ideas of how PR should be defined.  Bela explains that in her early stages of PR, we had to market the profession ourselves rather than how we could help clients. Globalisation was the driving force behind PR’s entry into India in the 1990s. Bela Rajan’s husband NS Rajan joined as well which was then a corporate communication head of Essar Group, and so Ketchum Sampark was born in 1994. 

According to Bela Rajan, every crisis you face as a public relations professional provides you with new insights nuances, and experiences. We need to get to the bottom of what the cause of the crisis is, and what the exact solutions can be, rather than panicking and getting upset. Bela’s long journey of 27 years, she has handled many campaigns, but the one campaign she has not become a part of and does desire to become a part of is the Nike brand.

In 2021, Bela & NS Rajan decided to retire from Ketchum Sampark. According to Bela, there are many challenges still to conquer in the world of public relations in India. Many people don’t understand that earned media and paid media actually work differently, and the distinction between them is still blurry, which creates pressure on a brand and its consumers. The brands place unreasonable expectations on public relations about certain things as well. Among these things, ROI, Coverage, and Budget are the main challenges. For Bela, transparency and authenticity are increasingly important in PR today. She believes that nothing is impossible, and in fact adversities create opportunities.

Bela has not only made a significant contribution to the world of public relations in India through Ketchum Sampark, but is helping to guide the new generation of PR professionals through higher studies in public relations. In 2015, Bela & NS Rajan decided to support the foundation of India’s first independent institution for public relations – SCoRe. Since its foundation, Bela has been instrumental in guiding the institution and its vision, in addition to personally mentoring the young budding professionals who study at SCoRe. Currently, Bela is the member of the institution’s Ethics Committee, responsible for ensuring that the graduates of the Post Graduate Diploma in Public Relations programme enter the Indian PR workforce with the highest standards of ethics.

The Indian PR industry continues to enrich through Bela’s contributions.

Interesting Read – How can you join PR after studying journalism

– Ayush Sharma

Ayush is a student of School Of COmmunications and REputations (SCoRe) – Class of 2022 – Spring Batch. He is a passionate PR practitioner, who is always ready for the new challenges. So far he has worked on consumer tech, Ed-tech, and lifestyle-associated brands. Ayush is a PR Geek. He can be reached on Twitter as @AyushSh96251203 and on LinkedIn as Ayush Sharma