MRSI: What the Market Research Society of India Governs, and How to Use It When Hiring a Research Firm

MRSI describes itself as "a not-for-profit autonomous market research body formed in 1988 by a large fraternity of research suppliers and users spread across India" (MRSI, About Us). Membership is open to agencies, users of research, service providers, educational institutes, individuals and students. A Managing Committee elected by the corporate members runs the society. The current committee was elected for 2024 to 2027 at the 36th AGM on 27 June 2024, with Nitin Kamat of TAM Media Research as president (Business Today, June 2024). MRSI says it works with ESOMAR, the global research association (same source).

Who is a member matters to you because the code binds members only. The public directory listed 183 corporate records when we read it on 2 November 2026, split into Full, Associate and International Associate corporate members (MRSI Directory of Members). Search it by name before you shortlist a firm.

Membership fees, from MRSI's membership page, read on 2 November 2026:

A corporate application needs a proposer and a seconder from the full corporate members, then Managing Committee review (same page). Membership is a modest signal of standing, not a quality audit.

MRSI's code is the ICC/ESOMAR International Code on Market, Opinion and Social Research and Data Analytics. MRSI says it "wholly adopted the ICC/Esomar code in 2023". Members approved the 2025 edition at an Extraordinary General Meeting on 2 December 2025, and it applies to MRSI members from 1 April 2026 (MRSI, Code and Professional Standards, read on 2 November 2026). Acceptance of the code is mandatory for all members. Where the code and Indian law differ, the stricter rule governs (same page).

The ICC/ESOMAR code is endorsed by over 60 associations in more than 50 countries and rests on five principles (ICC, September 2025):

1. Research must be legal, honest, transparent and truthful.
2. It must be done with due care, fairly and without harm to the people who take part.
3. Researchers must tell people how their personal data will be collected and used, and protect it.
4. Researchers must behave ethically and not undermine public trust in research.
5. Researchers keep overall responsibility and oversight, whatever method or technology they use.

The 2025 edition added articles on AI, synthetic data and emerging technologies, and stronger protection for children and vulnerable people. It also added a fit-for-purpose duty that extends to users of self-service survey platforms (Campaign India, December 2025). That last point includes you. If you run your own survey on a platform, say how the sample was drawn and what its limits are.

MRSI groups the code into responsibilities to data subjects, to clients, to the general public and to the research profession (MRSI code page). Quote the client responsibilities in your contract.

MRSI appointed its first Professional Standards Committee (PSC) on 13 February 2020. The PSC enforces the MRSI and ICC/ESOMAR codes and decides disciplinary action against members found in breach (MRSI code page). It is chaired by Sathyamurthy Namakkal of AIMO Marketing Services, with members from Quantum Consumer Solutions, Nestle India, Godrej Consumer Products and Ipsos (same page).

The process, from the same page:

• MRSI takes complaints about members only, unless exceptional circumstances affect the industry's reputation.
• It does not take legal matters: contract disputes, non-payment or employment issues.
• Complaints submitted more than 12 months after the date of dispute are not accepted.
• The PSC asks the other party for a response, then decides whether the code was broken.
• Sanctions include termination of membership and publication of the action taken.
• You must send fully documented evidence. It is shared only with the other party and the PSC.

This is a reputational lever, not a refund route. Keep the brief, the proposal, the fieldwork reports and the data-quality logs. They are the evidence the PSC will ask for.

NCCS, the New Consumer Classification System, was co-developed by MRSI and the Media Research Users Council and launched in 2009. It grades a household on the education of the chief wage earner and the number of consumer durables it owns from a set list. MRSI does not charge for its use (afaqs, January 2015).

In February 2024 MRSI launched ISEC, the Indian Socio-Economic Classification, to replace NCCS. MRSI said rising incomes and durable ownership had made NCCS volatile. ISEC uses the education of the highest-educated adult woman and man in the household and the occupation of the chief earner. It has 12 groups (Research Live, February 2024; Daily Research News, February 2024). MRSI publishes the ISEC classification grid as a PDF and an Excel file, plus an ISEC distribution file (MRSI, ISEC, read on 2 November 2026).

When a proposal says "NCCS A and B", ask which grid version and which questions the firm will use. Ask too whether it can report ISEC, so your next study stays comparable. Our NCCS classification guide shows the grades, the grid and the questions.

Industry sizing. On 5 January 2026, MRSI released its report, The Indian Research & Insights Industry 2025 Update. It put the industry at ₹29,008 crore in FY2025, up from ₹26,300 crore in FY2024, with analytics at nearly 60% of the market (afaqs, January 2026). The report is a free download against an email address, with a yearly update and a full revision every four years (MRSI industry report page, read on 2 November 2026). Use it to test a vendor's claims about its own growth.

DPDP guidance. The code page links a Guide to DPDP for the Indian Research and Insights Industry. MRSI has also run a members-only webinar on the DPDP Act and Rules 2025 (MRSI home, read on 2 November 2026). The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill passed Lok Sabha on 7 August 2023 and Rajya Sabha on 9 August 2023, and it requires notice before consent (PRS Legislative Research).

Buyer guidance documents. The same code page links ESOMAR guidance written for buyers, including Questions for Users and Buyers of Online Samples and Questions to help Buyers of AI-based services. Download both before you write an RFP.

Run every shortlisted firm through this table. The middle column says where to check without taking the firm's word for it.

Three clauses to paste into the brief:

1. "The supplier confirms it is a member of MRSI in good standing and will conduct this study under the ICC/ESOMAR International Code 2025 as adopted by MRSI."
2. "The supplier will disclose, in the report, the sample source, the classification system used, the share of interviews removed for quality, and any use of AI or synthetic data."
3. "Personal data of respondents will be processed under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, with the notice text approved by the client, and deleted on a date stated in the contract."

A firm that is not an MRSI member is not disqualified. Ask it to accept the same three clauses and read its published methodology instead. Our guide to hiring a market research agency has a full RFP template.

What we would do. We would check the directory before the first call, then send the three clauses with the brief rather than negotiating them after the proposal arrives. A firm that balks at the disclosure clause is telling you something about its fieldwork. Ask it why before you move on.

If your job is a consumer survey in India that must be documented to the standard above, this is the pilot and main study at list price, with respondents included.

Pro is sold in bundles of 400 to 1,000 responses and costs 20% less per response than Plus. Enterprise plans come with a dedicated research team and are priced on request.

The SuperJ network has 2 crore Indian respondents. The survey-eligible panel is a subset, and availability depends on your targeting. Members complete Aadhaar-based KYC once, and each study receives a zero-knowledge proof of verification. Surveys run in as many Indian languages as the study needs, and studies can target NCCS A/B/C, age, gender and city. Quality checks flag speeders, straight-lining and inconsistent answers. Read /panel-methodology and pricing; they answer the sample and quality rows of the checklist above.

The limit: the app reaches smartphone users only, so offline households need face-to-face fieldwork.