The markets watchdog had indicted HLL on charges of insider trading in the run-up to Brooke Bond Lipton's merger with itself.

HLL corporate communications general manager Irfan Khan said he was confident the appellate authority would not find HLL guilty, but added the company would seek justice from the courts if the SEBI verdict was upheld.

Khan was replying to questions following his talk at a workshop on "Changing profiles of media and public relations: Media - PR interface" organised by the Tamil Nadu chapter of the Public Sector PR Forum here on Saturday.

On the fallout of the nuclear tests conducted by India, Khan said he didn't think the "sanctions would operate at all" since business in India was imperative for the growth of western corporates.

Principal Information Officer and information advisor to the primeminister, S Narendra, said public relations as a function of human resources had not developed in the country, particularly in the public sector. He said PR in the information age should be "the handmaiden of empowerment" in the organisation.

The Hindu's joint managing director N Murali said the print medium was on the threshold of exciting times on account of competition from the electronic media. To be successful, he said, newspapers would require integrity, independence, imagination and integrated functioning.

On PR, he said the press was often pursued by public relations people with information the latter wanted in print. However, when the media required information, the "PR people make themselves scarce," he said.