Market Research Society of India elects Manish Makhijani, Global Insights Director, Hindustan Unilever as President

Market Research Society of India (MRSI), an industry-led market research body, has announced the formation of the Managing Committee for the tenure of 2022-2024. Manish Makhijani, Global Insights Director of Hindustan Unilever Ltd. was elected as the new President and takes over from Sandeep Arora, Executive Vice President and Global Head – Research & Analytics Solutions, Datamatics Global Services. Manish worked as the Vice President of MRSI last three years and has been instrumental in creating and delivering several initiatives like the Golden Key Awards, Hackathon event at the Annual Seminar, etc. Manish is also a passionate advocate of nurturing talent and has been at the forefront of inspiring new talent to come to the industry and contribute toward business growth.

Additionally, Paru Minocha and Saurin Shah were elected as Vice-Presidents, Prashant Kolleri as the Secretary, and Nitin Kamat as the Treasurer for MRSI. The election of the new Managing Committee members was held at MRSI’s 34^th Annual General Meeting on July 7, 2022 in Mumbai. 

MRSI’s Managing Committee is represented by companies across Research Agencies, Research Users and Service Providers in the market research industry. The newly elected Managing Committee continues to stay focussed on maintaining and ensuring the highest quality standards thus establishing India’s dominant position in the global market research industry.  The focus of MRSI for the next couple of years would be to build on the momentum it has created in the last few years and focus on building a stronger network where all the members can benefit from each other, building a talent pipeline in the industry and instilling a sense of pride in the work being done. 

Congratulating the newly elected President, Sandeep Arora, Executive Vice President and Global Head – Research & Analytics Solutions, Datamatics Global Services and outgoing President of the Market Research Society of India said, “I thank the MRSI members for supporting the current Managing Committee with their trust, especially when we had to change our course and plans drastically during the unprecedented Covid period. Thankfully, most of the key initiatives (locally and globally) we launched during that time have given a new direction and scale to the vision of the association going forward. I wish the incoming Managing Committee under the leadership of Manish Makhijani all the best to carry this momentum forward.”

The 2019-2021 Managing Committee took on some of the MRSI’s most significant initiatives till date. The committee was responsible for the successful release of India’s first-ever comprehensive market sizing report titled ‘The Indian Research & Insights Industry 2021’. The report stated that the approximately $2.3 billion Indian research and insights industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12% to 14% to reach $4.2 billion by 2025-26. Rising to the numerous challenges on account of the COVID-19 pandemic, the former Managing Committee under the leadership of Sandeep Arora embraced online and hybrid formats to drive engagement. The committee also supported fieldwork investigators who are the foot soldiers of the industry through the MRSI Freelance Investigator Fund in 2020.

On being elected as MRSI’s President for the next two years, Manish Makhijani, Global Insights Director, Hindustan Unilever Ltd. said, “I am incredibly privileged to carry forward the legacy of so many stalwarts in the industry. Our industry has come a long way and sits at the intersection of changing consumer behaviour, technology, and marketing solutions. It is now up to us to really bring out the contribution of insights into the growth of the business in this complex and evolving world.”