India, Feb. 27 -- A couple of years after my retirement, I was invited by my alma mater - the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Punjabi University, Patiala - to deliver an extension lecture on "Emerging Strategies and Technologies of Public Relations in Government".

Having spent 36 years navigating the contours of government PR, I was fairly confident of doing justice to the topic. After all, I had seen the field evolve - first through cyclostyled and typewritten press notes, then fax machines and finally into the digital age of tweets, trending hashtags and real-time public engagement on platforms like X, Instagram and emerging micro-video channels. Obviously, returning as a guest speaker to the very department where, mor...