Market Research Society of India (MRSI), India’s foremost industry-led market research body, announces the formation of the managing committee for the tenure of 2022-2024.
Hindustan Unilever Ltd. global insights director Manish Makhijani was elected as the new president and takes over from Datamatics Global Services research and analytics solutions global head and executive VP Sandeep Arora. Manish worked as MRSI VP for the last three years and has been instrumental in creating and delivering several initiatives like the Golden Key Awards and Hackathon event at the annual seminar. Manish is also a passionate advocate of nurturing talent and has been at the forefront of inspiring new talent to come to the industry and contribute toward business growth.
Additionally, Paru Minocha and Saurin Shah were elected as vice-presidents, Prashant Kolleri as the secretary, and Nitin Kamat as the treasurer for MRSI. The election of the new managing committee members was held at MRSI’s 34th annual general meeting on 7 July 2022 in Mumbai.
MRSI’s managing committee is represented by companies across research agencies, research users and service providers in the market research industry. The newly-elected managing committee continues to stay focussed on maintaining and ensuring the highest quality standards thus establishing India’s dominant position in the global market research industry. The focus of MRSI for the next couple of years would be to build on the momentum it has created in the last few years and focus on building a stronger network where all the members can benefit from each other, building a talent pipeline in the industry and instilling a sense of pride in the work being done.
Congratulating the newly elected president, Sandeep Arora said, “I thank the MRSI members for supporting the current managing committee with their trust, especially when we had to change our course and plans drastically during the unprecedented Covid period. Thankfully, most of the key initiatives we launched during that time have given a new direction and scale to the vision of the association going forward. I wish the incoming managing committee under the leadership of Manish Makhijani all the best to carry this momentum forward.”
The 2019-2021 managing committee took on some of the MRSI’s most significant initiatives to date. The committee was responsible for the successful release of India’s first-ever comprehensive market sizing report titled The Indian Research and Insights Industry 2021. The report stated that the approximately $2.3 billion Indian research and insights industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12 per cent to 14 per cent to reach $4.2 billion by 2025-26. Rising to the numerous challenges on account of the Covid-19 pandemic, the former managing committee under the leadership of Arora embraced online and hybrid formats to drive engagement. The committee also supported fieldwork investigators who are the foot soldiers of the industry through the MRSI freelance investigator fund in 2020.
On being elected as MRSI’s president for the next two years, Makhijani said, “I am incredibly privileged to carry forward the legacy of so many stalwarts in the industry. Our industry has come a long way and sits at the intersection of changing consumer behaviour, technology, and marketing solutions. It is now up to us to really bring out the contribution of insights into the growth of the business in this complex and evolving world.”
Here’s the MRSI’s managing committee member for the term of 2022-2024:
- Sandeep Arora – Datamatics Global Services
- Arindam Bhattacharya – Lucid Holdings India Pvt. Ltd.
- Shuvadip Banerjee – ITC Ltd
- Parijat Chakraborty – Ipsos Research Private Limited
- Dixit Chanana – Toluna India Private Limited
- Mukul Gautam – Purple Audacity
- Derrick Gray – BARC
- Sameer Grover – Crownit
- Nitin Kamat – TAM Media Research Pvt Ltd.
- Prashant Kolleri – NielsenIQ (India) Pvt Ltd
- Manish Makhijani – Hindustan Unilever Ltd
- Amitabh Mishra – Dr.Reddy’s Laboratories
- Paru Minocha – Kantar
- Sathyamurthy Namakkal – DDB Mudra Group
- Praveen Nijhara – Hansa Research Group
- Stephen Samuel – Kantar Analytics Practice
- Saurin Shah – Godrej Consumer Products Ltd.
- Girish Upadhyay – Axis My India
- Vivek Malhotra – TV Today Network Ltd
