As one financial year comes to a close and another begins, it gives me great pleasure to review the financial performance and the activities of your Society.

FINANCIAL REVIEW

Overall, the surplus of income over expenses has increased dramatically from Rs 12.88 lakhs in the year ending 31 March 2008 to Rs 24.84 lakhs in the more recent year. The biggest improvement in the financial performance has been the savings resulting from lower amounts written off both as Membership dues and as Seminar fees and sponsorships. Credit for this improved performance has to be attributed to the vigorous follow-up by the Society Manager, AR Rajagoplan. The income was Rs. 50.97 lakhs, higher than the corresponding figure in the previous year of Rs 47.56 lakhs. Overall, we were able to transfer Rs 24.0 lakhs to “Training, Conferences and Special Projects Fund” as compared to Rs 12.5 lakhs in the previous year. A summary of the income and expenditure statement for the current and previous two years is attached to this report.

IN MEMORIAM

A review of this year would not be complete without remembering Alok Shankar and Bhupendra Mathur, two stalwarts of the market research industry who passed away during the latter part of 2008. Their untimely deaths have robbed the Industry of two captains who have steered their companies and contributed to the growth of the industry and the Market Research Society during its formative years. We shall miss them sorely.

OVERVIEW OF ACTIVITIES

Size of the Market Research Industry

The market for research in India in calendar year 2008, is estimated at about Rs 854 crores, a 14.4% increase over the previous year. Several sectors, like consumer research, automotive research, retail and other services, have grown considerably. B2B, Industrial and technology products as well as social research were the sectors that were considerably affected by the down turn. Our best estimate of the size of the industry over the years is:

2004 – Rs 376 crores
2005 – Rs 492 crores
2006 – Rs 590 crores
2007 – Rs 746 crores
2008 – Rs 854 crores

I must thank all the participating members for submitting the data to PWC and enabling this compilation. The aggregated report with breakdowns by nature of client and sector is being circulated to all those who provided this information.

The MRSI Web site

We have during the course of the year revamped some of the content of the MRSI web site, though a great deal more needs to be done to make it a really effective tool of reaching out to our stakeholders. Members would be aware of the new url: www.mrsi.in . The web site contains the list and contact details of all members of the MRSI and also has the MRSI Code of Conduct.
The MRSI has also been occasionally receiving requests for papers of Annual Seminars. It was decided during the course of the year that MRSI should not sell the papers of the last seminar but that the back issues would be available at approximately 50% of the registration fees of the seminar.

The New SEC

The MRSI, along with the Media Research Users’ Council, have been working to create the New SEC which would be suitable for both urban and rural India. We have had meetings with a larger group of the research agencies as well as advertisers and media planners to take their views on the proposed system. Though this work has extended over a considerable period, we are hoping to have the new system in place before the end of this year.

The 19^th MRSI Annual Seminar

The next Research Works! Seminar will be on the theme “The Challenge of Change: Understanding the key to Success”. The Seminar will be held in Delhi on September 24 and 25. I would like to record our appreciation of the efforts of J Rajaretnam and Hemant Mehta, along with Seminar Committee, who have started their planning very early this year. Please join with them to make this Seminar a truly successful event.

In Conclusion

As the term of the current Managing Committee comes to an end, we thank the several members of the MRSI who have contributed their time and effort for the activities of the Society. Nothing would have been possible without their inputs and leadership.