COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES AND RECOMMENDATIONS Leading a corporate communications initiative in India can be an overwhelming experience with its religious, cultural and linguistic diversity. Critical factors to take into consideration when conducting a corporate communications initiative in India are linguistic challenges, political considerations, different ethical systems and level of corruption, different cultural norms, religious differences, attitudes towards of women, the challenges of mass media and limited information technology. structure. Although India is a developing country, has over 5,000 thriving media channels, the factors of “early stage” media and narrow media channels do not impact corporate communications planning for this country. LANGUAGE CHALLENGESThe Indian languageIndia has a population of over 1.2 billion people and is the second most populous country in the world. It is home to several languages, but does not have a national language. Depending on the region, however, India has official languages ​​that they work with on a daily basis. English has a subsidiary official language status in India, whereby it is the most important language for national, political and business communication, as well as in education. With more than 400 million speakers, Hindi is also one of the most widely spoken languages ​​and a major language in much of India. Apart from these two languages, India has a total of 22 official languages ​​today. In no particular order, they are: Assamese, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Sanskrit, Bodo, Dogri, Konkani, Maithili, Manipuri, Nepali and Santhali. In India, national identity is not that important at the center of a party or paper agenda. Parts come and go and you need to be able to constantly work with different parts.7. Give yourself plenty of time before your event and when you arrive. This will allow you to better understand the situation on the ground and also handle any unexpected political or government situation. For example, some items are still stuck at customs and you need to get in touch with the right official to handle the situation or you have the right permit to organize an outdoor event. This will take some time to resolve.8. Even though India is democratic and you will not be jailed for criticizing the government, it is advisable not to criticize the government in public.9. Always have a plan B. If for some reason a political situation arises on the same day as your event or launch, plan to postpone the launch to a later date.