The Edutainment Awards: MICA ranked top ad school; SIMC, Northpoint follow

Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad (MICA) took the top honour among advertising institutes in the first edition of The Edutainment Awards, winners of which were announced in Mumbai on 26 April 2014.

The awards recognised educational institutes in the streams of advertising, film and television, journalism, PR and events, and design among others.

Among design schools, NID Ahmedabad took the Gold award, while Asian College of Journalism Chennai was adjudged best journalism school. Xavier’s Institute of Communication Mumbai won the top award for PR and Event Management education, even as Whistling Woods International bagged Gold for Film and Television education.

MICA also won the top prize for 'Media' education (across all communication disciplines).

The awards were part of the second edition of education fair ‘The Edutainment Show’, organised by Event Capital and Laqshya Media.

The results were based on evaluation by a jury of industry practitioners, chaired by Dr Bhaskar Das, group CEO, Zee Media Corporation. Parameters for evaluation included performance of two years, infrastructure, global affiliations, syllabi, alumni and network.

The full list of winners is here: (story continues below)

Da Cunha presented Lifetime Achievement Award

The citation for Da Cunha's award read thus:

"Edutainment Awards 2014 is honoured to present the Lifetime Achievement Award in Communication Education to Mr. Gerson Da Cunha, a doyen of the communication profession and communication education in India.

"The communication fraternity of India can never forget his yeomen service in nurturing talent for the industry starting as early as the first course in copywriting for the Advertising Club of Mumbai in 1959, then developing Mudra Institute of Communication, Ahmedabad, being 12 years its Governing Board member and five years its Chairman. Later, as Governing Council member of the Ahmedabad-based National Institute of Design for four years, he helped evolve its Visual Communication courses. He has also led the framing of advertising education in Xavier Institute of Communication, Mumbai.

"Interestingly, Mr Da Cunha tutored Unilever executives on advertising when working for Lintas London. He has given intellectual leadership to more than a dozen educational initiatives and events of Advertising Club and many institutes during his three decades of advertising career with Lintas in India.

"On a government study-grant to the School of Communication Arts, University of Sao Paolo, Brazil, Mr Da Cunha, taught for a year there, and developed a communication project which led him to be engaged with UNICEF in Brazil and USA for a decade.

"The organizers of the Edutainment Awards 2014 salute Mr Gerson Da Cunha for his contribution of five long decades to the cause of quality talent development in media, communication and design."