NEW DELHI: Frank Noronha, who had held the post of director-general in the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP), has moved to the Press Information Bureau as director general.
He has been succeeded in DAVP by Giridhari Mohanty, who was until now in All India Radio news as director general, a post he held since July 2010. Since September 2011, Mohanty was also a member of the Advisory Group on Media and Human Rights established by the National Human Rights Commission.
Both officers are from the 1982 batch of the Indian Information Service.
Noronha, who was appointed director general of DAVP in 2009, told Radioandmusic.com that the transfer was normal since he had completed four years in DAVP.
Coming a year before the General Elections, the DAVP post becomes significant as the Government will use all the resources at its command to send out advertisements to news media about the government’s achievements, particularly in the programmes related to the rural areas. Mohanty’s experience in AIR will come in useful in this regard.
DAVP currently sends out ads worth more than Rs 7.50 billion every year. Some of the autonomous bodies also route their advertisements through DAVP.