India's MRUC Names New CEO

Shaswati Saradar, CEO of India's MRUC (Media Research Users Council) has 'decided to move on' after nearly five years, and will be replaced by Radhesh Uchil. The organisation also has a new Chairman and Vice Chairman.

MRUC was established to conduct research into audiences for media including newspapers, television, radio and outdoor ad hoardings. Its continuous readership study, the IRS (Indian Research Survey) resulted from the merger of the country's two key print readership studies: the National Readership Survey (NRS) conducted by the National Readership Studies Council, and the original Indian Readership Survey (IRS) conducted by the MRUC. However, in February, results from the IRS were suspended following complaints by several members of the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) who claimed it contained 'shocking anomalies which defy logic and common sense'.

Saradar joined in 2011, having previously served as VP and Head of Marketing, Europe & Russia at news channel Zee Network; before which she was a Senior Manager at auto manufacturer Maruti Suzuki India. She began her career agency side in media planning and director roles at Ogilvy & Mather and McCann Erickson India. Reasons for her departure are not known, but she has been replaced by media professional Uchil, who has worked as a freelance consultant for the past three years, and previously served as General Manager of Platinum Media, where he led Mumbai operations. Earlier, he held senior positions with Carat India, Pangulf Media-Dubai, Universal Media, fortune promoseven/um7, and Lintas.

The MRUC has also named Ushodaya Enterprises MD I. Venkat as Chairman for a period of two years, replacing GroupM South Asia CEO CVL Srinivas, who only took up the post in May; while HDFC Life SEVP Sanjay Tripathy has become MRUC Vice Chairman, replacing Rohit Gupta of Multi Screen Media. The appointments were made by the MRUC Board of directors at its recent AGM.

Web site: www.mruc.net .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.