Case Studies of PR in India: Government, Corporate, and Non-Profit Campaigns

Public relations in India is not a one-size-fits-all discipline. Across government ministries, boardrooms, crisis war rooms, and nonprofit fundraising desks, PR strategy looks entirely different-and the outcomes reflect those differences. The four case studies examined here-Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, Infosys’ digital repositioning, Jet Airways’ crisis, and the Akshaya Patra Foundation-together form a practical classroom for understanding how persuasive communication is crafted, deployed, and measured across distinct sectors in India.

Government PR: Beti Bachao Beti Padhao 🔗

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP), which translates to “Save the Daughter, Educate the Daughter,” is one of the most ambitious government PR campaigns India has ever executed. Launched on 22 January 2015 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Panipat, Haryana, the campaign was conceived as a response to a troubling demographic trend: the child sex ratio had declined from 945 girls per 1,000 boys in 1991 to just 918 in 2011, signalling deep-rooted gender discrimination across the country.

A multifaceted media strategy 🔗

What made BBBP a textbook example of government PR was its deliberate use of multiple communication channels simultaneously. The campaign ran nationwide awareness drives through television commercials, radio programmes, street plays, and community mobilisation events, targeting both urban and rural populations. Celebrity endorsements amplified reach-Olympic bronze medallist Sakshi Malik was appointed as a brand ambassador in August 2016, lending the campaign aspirational credibility.

Social media became an unexpected accelerant. The hashtag #SelfieWithDaughter went viral after a village sarpanch in Haryana posted a photo with his daughter on Facebook in June 2015. The hashtag soon garnered worldwide attention, demonstrating how a single grassroots moment can be absorbed into a national PR narrative. This kind of organic amplification-where community participation becomes inseparable from the official campaign-is a hallmark of effective government communication.

Results and critique 🔗

The campaign produced measurable social change. The national Sex Ratio at Birth improved from 918 in 2014-15 to 930 in 2023-24, a gain of 12 points over a decade. Girls’ enrolment in secondary schools also improved during this period. A study published on SSRN found that greater exposure to BBBP significantly increased girls’ learning time, school attendance, and formal education participation.

However, the campaign is not without criticism, and any honest analysis must include it. According to government data cited in Outlook India, more than 56% of funds under the scheme were spent on media-related activities between 2014-15 and 2018-19, while less than 25% reached the districts and states meant to implement ground-level programmes. The Comptroller and Auditor General also noted that the scheme failed to meet some of its objectives in several districts. These critiques highlight a recurring tension in government PR: high visibility does not automatically translate into high impact.

Corporate PR: Infosys and the digital transformation narrative 🔗

When Infosys set out to reposition itself from a traditional IT outsourcer to a digital transformation leader, it relied on a sustained, multi-channel PR strategy rather than a single campaign. The challenge was a credibility one: in an industry crowded with similar claims, how does a legacy company prove it is genuinely leading the next wave of technology?

Thought leadership as the core PR tool 🔗

Infosys chose thought leadership as its primary instrument. A peer-reviewed study published in MIS Quarterly Executive described how Infosys was an early adopter of social media, strategically engaging key stakeholders to manage its brand, inform market directions, and guide future strategy-a model rarely seen among Indian IT companies at the time. The company built the Infosys Knowledge Institute, a dedicated thought leadership arm producing research, reports, and industry insights targeting C-suite decision-makers globally.

Alongside this, Infosys used press releases, investor communications, sustainability reports, and participation in high-profile global events-from GITEX Global to Cannes Lions-to keep itself visible among enterprise clients and regulators. Media interviews by senior leadership in business publications reinforced the brand’s expertise, while webinars and digital content kept the conversation alive between events.

CSR as a reputation multiplier 🔗

The Infosys Foundation, established in 1996 as a not-for-profit trust, has been a consistent part of the company’s PR ecosystem. It focuses on healthcare, education, rural development, and the preservation of India’s cultural heritage-causes that resonate across stakeholder groups. By channelling CSR work through a dedicated, independently recognised body, Infosys avoided the appearance of performative philanthropy. In FY 2022-23, the company spent over ₹391 crore on CSR activities in India alone, according to data from The CSR Journal.

The strategic results are tangible. By 2025, Infosys had secured $3.8 billion in large deals in a single quarter, recorded a 34% increase in brand value on the Kantar BrandZ rankings, and received recognition as one of the world’s most ethical companies. Each of these outcomes is partially a product of consistent, disciplined PR work sustained over years-not a single campaign.

Crisis PR: The Jet Airways collapse 🔗

Not all PR campaigns are designed to build-some are designed to hold things together as they fall apart. The Jet Airways crisis of 2019 remains one of the most studied examples of crisis communication in Indian corporate history.

The crisis context 🔗

Jet Airways ceased operations on 17 April 2019, with its final flight departing from Amritsar to Mumbai-marking the end of a 26-year run as one of India’s premier full-service carriers. The collapse was not sudden. The share price had declined by more than 85% since March 2018, and the airline was carrying debt well over a billion dollars. Over 20,000 employees were directly affected, with more than 60,000 people impacted indirectly.

What the PR strategy tried to do 🔗

In the months preceding the shutdown, Jet Airways’ PR team worked on multiple fronts. Internally, the airline used town hall meetings to address employee anxiety, attempting to manage morale and prevent a complete breakdown of trust within the organisation. Externally, regular press releases and media briefings were issued to communicate with lenders, passengers, and regulators. On social media, the airline’s customer service team attempted to address passenger queries in real time, particularly around refunds and ticket status.

The core PR principle being applied here-transparency and timeliness-is well documented in crisis communication theory. When audiences cannot get information from official sources, rumour fills the vacuum. Jet’s approach, however imperfect, sought to prevent that. The National Aviators’ Guild formally appealed to the Prime Minister’s Office and the Civil Aviation Minister for intervention, and the government itself was involved in negotiations with lenders, which meant the PR battle was being fought on a very public stage.

Lessons from the failure 🔗

Where Jet’s crisis PR fell short was in credibility. Auditors had raised red flags well before the collapse, and warning signals-unpaid salaries, cancelled flights, and key resignations-were visible to the public for months. When a crisis has been building visibly for that long, reactive communication struggles to reassure. The case reinforces a fundamental PR lesson: reputation is built in calm waters, not in storms. A company that has consistently communicated with honesty has a credibility reserve to draw on during crises. Jet, unfortunately, did not.

Non-profit PR: The Akshaya Patra Foundation 🔗

For non-profit organisations, PR serves a different master-not profit margins or share prices, but the twin goals of fundraising and mission visibility. The Akshaya Patra Foundation, headquartered in Bengaluru, demonstrates how a non-profit can build a powerful public presence through consistent, mission-aligned communication.

Scale as a story 🔗

Founded in 2000 with a vision that no child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger, Akshaya Patra began by serving 1,500 children in five schools and has since cumulatively served over 4 billion meals. Today, it operates as the largest NGO partner of the Government of India under the PM POSHAN Abhiyaan, serving over 2.25 million children across 78 kitchen locations in 16 states and 3 Union Territories.

That scale is itself a PR asset. The foundation’s communications team makes deliberate use of it-sharing data-backed impact stories, publishing beneficiary narratives, and inviting media into its state-of-the-art kitchens. Harvard Business School has studied the foundation’s operations on two separate occasions-in 2007 and in 2017-lending external academic credibility that money cannot buy. The foundation has also received the ICAI Gold Shield for Excellence in Financial Reporting seven times, a detail it rightly highlights to donors scrutinising financial transparency.

Digital strategy and influencer outreach 🔗

Akshaya Patra’s digital PR strategy is built around emotional storytelling. On Instagram and other social platforms, the foundation regularly shares the individual stories of children it feeds-aspirational accounts of students who want to become teachers, police officers, and scientists. This keeps the mission human and relatable, rather than abstract. The foundation maintains an active social media presence, building community around its cause rather than just broadcasting updates.

Celebrity association has also played a role. Actor Akshay Kumar-whose name coincidentally echoes the foundation’s-has been publicly associated with its work, helping amplify its message to mainstream audiences. Such collaborations extend the foundation’s reach far beyond its own follower base and bring credibility with new donor segments.

What Akshaya Patra demonstrates is that non-profit PR, at its best, is not about spin-it is about making an invisible problem visible and giving audiences a clear, emotionally compelling reason to care and act. Its public-private partnership model, combining government collaboration with corporate donations and individual giving, is itself a PR strategy: it signals institutional trust, financial accountability, and broad-based legitimacy.

Comparing the four approaches 🔗

Each of these four campaigns operated within a different context, yet certain principles surface consistently. Clarity of message matters in every sector-whether the message is “value your daughter,” “we lead digital change,” “we are managing this crisis,” or “hunger is solvable.” Consistency over time distinguishes campaigns that build durable reputations from those that generate short-term buzz. And channel mix-combining traditional media, digital platforms, celebrity voices, and community engagement-has proven effective across all four cases.

What also stands out is the role of authenticity. Campaigns that align communication with actual action-whether Infosys backing its PR claims with genuine innovation, or Akshaya Patra backing its storytelling with audited financials-carry further than those that rely on messaging alone. The Jet Airways case, by contrast, shows what happens when the gap between what is said and what is happening becomes too wide to bridge.

What do you think? Do government PR campaigns like BBBP carry a greater responsibility to prove real-world impact beyond media visibility-and how should that accountability be measured? And in a crisis like Jet Airways, at what point does transparent communication become insufficient if the underlying problem is not being solved?

References

1. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2094929
2. https://www.ibef.org/government-schemes/beti-bachao-beti-padhao
3. https://wcdhry.gov.in/schemes-for-women/beti-bachao-beti-padhao/
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beti_Bachao_Beti_Padhao
5. https://mon.nic.in/scheme/beti-bachao-beti-padhao/
6. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5248492
7. https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-news-beti-bachao-beti-padhao-centre-spent-56-of-funds-on-publicity-minister-tells-lok-sabha/324035
8. https://aisel.aisnet.org/misqe/vol12/iss2/4/
9. https://www.infosys.com/iki.html
10. https://iide.co/case-studies/marketing-strategy-of-infosys/
11. https://www.infosys.com/investors/corporate-governance/social-responsibility.html
12. https://thecsrjournal.in/corporate-social-responsibility-csr-report-infosys-limited/
13. https://neetiniyaman.com/jet-airways-liquidation-case-study/
14. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09728201221080692
15. https://startuptalky.com/case-study-jet-airways-crises/
16. https://www.icmrindia.org/casestudies/catalogue/Finance/FINC196.htm
17. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akshaya_Patra_Foundation
18. https://www.apusa.org/our-impact/