Mr Ravi Kant, executive director, commercial vehicles business unit, Tata Engineering has been unanimously elected as the new chairman of the Advertising Standards Council of India. An active proponent of self regulation in advertising, Mr Kant also currently holds the chairmanship of the National Readership Survey Council. Mr N Murali, joint managing director, Kasturi & Sons Ltd., has been elected the vice-chairman.

Observing that the challenge facing Indian advertisers and marketers was to ensure effective compliance and self-regulation in an increasingly competitive and consumer driven market place, Mr Kant said that it would be his endeavour to consolidate and strengthen the activities of the ASCI with the guidance of the new board of governors. ASCI is a voluntary self-regulatory body set up by the advertising and marketing community to ensure that all advertising in India is truthful, safe, fair, and legal to competition.

The new members of the board of governors include Mr Arun Adhikari of Hindustan Lever, Mr Sam Balsara of Madison Communications, Mr Sandeep Goyal of Zee Telefilms, Mr Bharat Pun of Cadbury India, Mr Bharat Patel of P&G Hygiene and Health Care, Mr R.A.Poddar of the Tobacco Institute of India, Ms Urmila Jain of Aarn Advertising, Mr Ram Seghal of Everest Integrated Communication, advocate Zia Mody and Mr Goutam Rakshit of Advertising Avenues to name a few. Outgoing president Dorab Sopariwala of Telesis Management Services is also a member.

The ASCI code is applicable to press, TV, radio, films and even promotion messages on packaging. During the year ended March 31, 2002, 196 complaints were reviewed by the council, of which 92 complaints were upheld as the advertisements were in contravention of the ASCI code. 73 of the advertisers concerned, assured compliance with the council rules.