Benoy Roychowdhury is ASCI's new chairman

The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) in its board meeting held on 10 September in Mumbai has elected Benoy Roychowdhury, executive director at HT Media and whole time director of Hindustan Media Ventures as chairman of the board for ASCI.

As a member of the Board of Governors for four years, he has represented print media and provided active support to Self-Regulation. Narendra Ambwani is the outgoing chairman.

Srinivasan K. Swamy, chairman and managing director, R.K. Swamy BBDO, was elected vice-chairman; and  Shashidhar Sinha, CEO, IPG Media Brands was re-appointed the honorary treasurer.

Other members of the Board of Governors are Abanti Sankanarayan (Vice President, CIABC), Al Rajwani (Managing Director & Chief Executive, Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Healthcare Ltd), Arunab Das Sharma (President, Bennett Coleman and Co Ltd), D. Shivakumar (Chairman & CEO, Pepsico India), I Venkat ( Director, Eanadu), Narendra Ambwani (Director, Agrotech Foods Ltd), Paritosh Joshi (Director, Provacateur), Prema Sagar (Vice Chair, Burson-Marsteller, Asia Pacific & Principal/Founder, Genesis Burson-Marsteller), Rajan Anandan (Managing Director, Google India Pvt Ltd), Sameer Singh (Executive Director Personal Care, Hindustan Unilever Ltd), SK Palekar (Management Educationist, S.P. Jain Institute), Subhash Kamath (Managing Partner, BBH Comms India Pvt Ltd) and Sunil Lulla (Chairman & Managing Director, Grey Group).

Narendra Ambwani, the outgoing chairman of ASCI said, “It has been quite an eventful year for ASCI. We had set four key priorities for the year i.e. collaboration with the regulators, easier consumer access to ASCI services, inculcate self-discipline among creators of advertising and be seen as fair adjudicator by all stakeholders. Not only were we able to deliver on all four priorities; but we also received recognition for all the good work ASCI has been doing."

Benoy Roychowdhury, chairman, ASCI commented, “There has been a remarkable transition in the last couple of years of how newer sectors like e-commerce and media such as digital advertising have changed the game. Over 90 per cent of consumers send in their complaints to ASCI online or via e: mail versus letters or phone calls. ASCI has also evolved to match the pace by significantly improving the efficiency and speed in ASCI’s consumer redressal process.”

During the year 2014-15, the CCC met 47 times and deliberated on complaints against a total of 1877 advertisements. Of these, complaints against 1389 ads were upheld, while 486 were not upheld and two were outside ASCI’s purview. ASCI has been able to achieve close to 90 per cent compliance, the body informed.