Mudra Foundation launches MICORE

MICORE has been set up in a symbiotic relationship with MICA. It will use communications research to demonstrate how communication models can empower communities and increase the effectiveness of industry and social institutions

Mudra Foundation has launched its second venture, Mudra Institute of Communications Research (MICORE), a decade after the launch of its communications management school, Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA). MICORE will also be located in Ahmedabad. It will be dedicated to communications research and aims to bring global standards in this field to India.

MICORE has been set up in a symbiotic relationship with MICA. MICORE is not an educational institute, but the communications research conducted here will be available for sharing with MICA and the rest of the media fraternity. It aims to commission research projects regularly and appoint a research team of 80-100 members by the end of its fifth year.

One of its objectives is to build communications research into a major area. It will use research to demonstrate how communications models can empower communities and increase the effectiveness of industry and social institutions.

It will also forecast changing landscapes and attempt to understand the changing role of communication in the new environment. It will develop new methodologies, tools, databases, archives and training skills required to develop and sustain communications research. It will support decision making and policy making through multidisciplinary research and develop research based linkages between academia, industry and society in India and abroad.

Alan D’Souza

Dr Ang Peng Hwa

Madhukar Kamath

Alan D'Souza, member of the governing council in MICA, will be the acting dean for MICORE. He remarks, "In the 21st century, there is an overload of information and what will matter is who communicates what, with whom, when and how. Original research is needed to bridge the gap between information that is available and that which is needed. Any attempt to improve the quality of life depends on the development of communication models."

D'Souza has been joined by Dr Ang Peng Hwa, who is dean and associate professor in the school of communication and information, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Dr Hwa already serves on the board of governors of MICA and will now also substantiate the research process for MICORE.

The proposed research domains in which MICORE will operate are integrated marketing communications, cultural communications, semiotics, entertainment, film studies, computer games, cyber culture studies and social and developmental communications. MICORE will draw upon the psychology of consumer behavior, economics, anthropology, sociology, arts, design, language and management for its research into these domains.

Its stakeholders include various businesses, government bodies at various levels, media organisations, national and international agencies involved in marketing and developmental communications, NGOs, communications researchers, practitioners and academicians and society at large.

Madhukar Kamath, chairman, Mudra Foundation, and managing director and chief operating officer, Mudra, says, "MICORE's driving impetus is to build a strong and just consumer and civil society. It will aim to achieve communications centred solutions for developmental and organizational challenges facing the country."

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