Until very recently, Giridhar Kunkur, the Unit Chief of Media and Public Relations, was in charge of communicating the achievements of BITS with the outside world. This being no easy task, a group of students volunteered to help out. This group of students later have now received recognition as the Media Relations Club, having been inducted into the SU charter during the last UC meet.

In an interview with EPC, Sudhanshu, the coordinator of the club, stressed on the need for BITS to publicize its achievements, citing various examples of IITs getting front page coverage for things BITS has accomplished a long time ago. For example, IIT Kanpur attracted media attention after going cashless post demonetization, when most of the services on campus at BITS were already being provided on ID cards. Moreover, the MRC plans on changing the current outlook on BITS as ‘just another private college’ by ensuring BITSian accomplishments get the acclaim they deserve.

MRC started to take form during BOSM, when a group of students played a part in the telecast of the inauguration ceremony by DD Sports and Zee News. They also compiled data and sent articles to local Hindi and English newspapers about the fest on a daily basis.

Now that the MRC is an entity under SU, they plan to have a national news channel broadcast the inauguration of APOGEE and some of the kernel events. Apart from publicising fests, MRC plans to send articles to media outfits on a regular basis and explore the possibilities of forms of publicity other than newspapers.

The club is divided into subsections, including photographers, videographers, video editors, content writers and managers. This semester, they are a group of 12 people and  the club will begin recruitment next semester. 

When asked where he saw the club in a few years’ time, Sudhanshu said that he wanted to see the club become an integral part of the institute and its functioning. When asked for a closing statement, he said, “We don’t want to create fake or hyped up news, we just want to show that we’re as good as any other institute in the country.”