iWorld
GUEST COLUMN: Deciphering social media Humanology during pandemic
New Delhi: Before 2020, if any individual ever put a requirement about a hospital or medicines on their social media timeline, the only people to respond to those posts would be their friends and professional relations. It was highly unlikely if an unknown (or unconnected) individual jumped in to respond or help.
However, the second wave of Covid-19 broke this myth. When someone posted an SOS message, the entire community, irrespective of whether they were connected or not, jumped in to help them. Within minutes, the seeker had the list of hospitals to dial in, vendors for an oxygen cylinder, masks, sanitisers, vials, doctors, and home remedies.
As the days went by, the number of these SOS turned into thousands flooding the timelines. There was a barrage of WhatsApp messages, Twitter posts, Insta Stories, Posts, and others sharing the names & contacts of the verified vendors/places of these above-mentioned amenities created by people who are not content creators.
The content creators and influencers played their roles. Technology enthusiasts created live blogs, tools that maintained the real-time verified status of the hospitals, doctors, and other necessities on the social media accounts for free of cost. Once an SOS query was answered there was a heart-warming response. The scenario reflected the age-old proverb – ‘Neki Kar, Dariya Mein dal’ (Be Discreet with your Kindness).
And it was not just a common man who used this medium, several hospitals and institutions used the social platforms to update their daily/hourly status and raise SOS to the government.
So, what changed in 2021? Why did people become so proactive on social media to help each other? What did they get out of this? Before we dig deep into this psychographic analysis of this question, let us understand the behaviour of most people on social media, especially who they engage with & how they do it.
Social media has always been like a digital mohalla (neighbourhood) where one lives with fast friends, daily acquaintances, casual acquaintances, professional acquaintances, and dormant relations. On most occasions, our deepest engagements are with either fast friends or professional connections. However, with everyone else, this relationship of engagement is very casual.
Stronger Together!
People realised that they were probably facing the worst ever humanitarian crisis and the only chance to survive this was through fighting it together. Now they could not go outside physically to help them, so the only option was to help digitally. This meant they could order medicines, find doctors, connect with hospitals, ambulances, and others.
Online Connection to on-ground Solution!
Once helping each other became a duty for responsible netizens, they started realising the power of social media and connections. They moved a step beyond just sharing the jokes and news and saw that they were part of the real action where lives mattered. Their small contribution can help someone. A simple idea that even if an existing connection could save one single life, it would be worth it.
CONTENTment
It gave them a lot of peace and satisfaction as they were able to help each other. Sharing is caring! They had a platform to express happiness or displeasure about the situation where they will not be judged. This feature has always been there and people used it excessively during the pandemic. The affected shared their challenges & remedies; the ones who suffered losses shared their thoughts & displeasure about the situation and the ones who were safe were able to take learnings from the affected ones.
Together We Win!
Together these voices collaborated and were able to gather domestic and global attention. They believed that they were a part of a movement where people will read/hear/see their plight and chip in to help. And finally, people were able to seek genuine responses that mattered. They were turning out to be influencers aka god’s light for many others. This user-generated response mechanism created a strong trust in their mind for the platform and engaged them even further to the mediums.
A big reason for this massive shift in behaviour was the need of people at large, especially when India’s entire healthcare system was under immense pressure.
However, there was also a flip side to it. It led to a lot of misinformation also wherein information about several untested medications was also making rounds on social media which could easily lead to reputation damage for a long time.
As a digital marketer, I believe in the semantics of social media platforms and connections. This shift is going to stay, social media as a social support platform is a colossal example of changing human behaviour & technology.
(Jankana Kaul is CEO, Natter. The views expressed in the column are personal and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them.)
iWorld
Netflix celebrates a decade in India with Shah Rukh Khan-narrated tribute film
MUMBAI: Netflix is celebrating ten years in India with a slick anniversary film voiced by Shah Rukh Khan, a nostalgic sprint through a decade that rewired how the country watches stories. The campaign doubles as both tribute and reminder: streaming did not just enter Indian homes, it quietly rearranged them.
Roll back to 2016 and television still dictated schedules. Viewers waited weeks, sometimes months, for favourite films to appear on prime time. Family-friendly filters narrowed options further, and piracy often filled the gaps. Then Netflix arrived, softly but decisively, carrying a catalogue of international titles rarely seen in Indian theatres and placing them a click away. Old blockbusters and new releases suddenly coexisted on the same digital shelf.
The platform’s real inflection point came in 2018 with Sacred Games, a breakout series that refused to dilute India’s grit for global comfort. Audiences embraced its unvarnished tone, signalling readiness for stories that did not need box-office validation or censorship compromises. What followed was a steady procession of relatable narratives. Competitive-exam anxiety fuelled Kota Factory. College relationships unfolded in Mismatched. Everyday pressures, not grand spectacle, proved bankable.
Language barriers thinned as foreign series arrived with Hindi, Tamil and Telugu dubbing, expanding viewership beyond urban English-speaking pockets. Marketing mirrored the shift. For global releases such as Squid Game, Netflix leaned on regional creators and influencers to localise buzz and make international content feel native.
The library widened beyond fiction. Documentaries stepped out of festival circuits into living rooms. Stand-up comedians found scale. Established filmmakers, including Sanjay Leela Bhansali with Heeramandi, embraced the platform’s long-form canvas. Subscriber numbers swelled to 12.37 million in India, according to Demandsage, and behaviour followed suit. Late-night binges became routine. Friday release rituals loosened. Watch parties turned solitary screens into social events.
Economics demanded adjustment. Early subscription pricing carried a premium aura that deterred many households. Over time, Netflix recalibrated plans to align with Indian spending sensibilities, conceding that accessibility is as critical as content. To extend momentum around marquee titles, the platform also experimented with split-season releases, stretching anticipation and watch time.
The anniversary film, narrated by Shah Rukh Khan, captures the linguistic shift that mirrors the cultural one: from “Netflix pe kya dekha?” to “Netflix pe kya dekhein?” The question moved from recounting the past to planning the next binge. In ten years, Netflix morphed from foreign entrant to familiar fixture, exporting Indian stories abroad while importing global ones home. The remote no longer waits; it chooses, clicks and moves on. In the streaming age, patience is out, playlists are in, and the next episode is always one tap away.
e-commerce
Tulasi Mohan Padavala elevated to Associate Director at Blinkit
Gurugram: Blinkit has elevated Tulasi Mohan Padavala to associate director, capping a three-year climb inside the quick-commerce firm and signalling confidence in an executive steeped in ecommerce, category management and on-ground sales execution.
Padavala shared the update publicly, saying he was “happy to share” the promotion, a succinct announcement that nevertheless marks a notable step up within one of India’s fastest-moving delivery platforms. The new role follows nearly three years at Blinkit, where he most recently served as senior category manager from February 2023 to January 2026, focusing on strategic sourcing and assortment planning.
The promotion places Padavala in Blinkit’s mid-to-senior leadership tier at a time when the company continues to expand its rapid-delivery footprint and sharpen category economics. His brief tenure as associate director began in January 2026, with responsibilities expected to span category growth, supplier strategy and cross-functional execution.
Before Blinkit, Padavala spent a short but intensive stint as global ecommerce manager at Wholsum Foods, the parent of Slurrp Farm and Millé, between November 2022 and February 2023. There he worked on digital marketplace expansion and online retail operations, adding a direct-to-consumer and international ecommerce layer to his résumé.
A longer stretch at Amazon shaped much of his cross-border commerce experience. As business development manager for Amazon’s India Global Selling programme from February 2021 to October 2022, Padavala helped Indian D2C brands enter the North American market. His remit ranged from seller recruitment and category revenue management to coordination with industry bodies, regulators and logistics partners. Key outcomes included launching more than 50 D2C consumable brands in the United States, driving a cumulative gross merchandise sales figure of $1m in FY21-22, tripling sales for participating brands during Prime Day through marketing and visibility levers, growing the monthly recurring revenue of more than 10 newly launched sellers from zero to an average $20,000 each, and negotiating ecommerce partnerships that reduced initial launch costs by 20 per cent.
Padavala’s earlier career was forged in the field rather than the dashboard. At Coffee Day Group, he spent close to five years across multiple sales leadership roles. As sales manager in the Greater Delhi Area from July 2019 to January 2021, he led vending-machine and consumables sales for small and medium enterprises with a team of more than 15 assistant and territory sales managers, managed over 2,000 clients, drove upselling and cross-selling, maintained channel partnerships and ensured timely collections. Prior to that, he served as area sales manager in Delhi between May 2018 and June 2019, handling south and east Delhi markets, and earlier in Hyderabad from April 2016 to May 2018, where he led Andhra Pradesh sales for the vending division, supervised service and logistics functions and managed a base of more than 600 machines with a four-member team.
His professional arc began with internships that combined analytics and process improvement. At Boehringer Ingelheim in 2015, Padavala analysed the impact of brand extension on the drug Pradaxa, identified key performance indicators through market research and assessed sales forecasts, recommendations that drew positive responses in pilot studies. Earlier, at Genpact in 2014, he automated manual sales-order backlog reporting using VBA and Excel, increasing efficiency by 800 per cent, and worked on benchmarking metrics within supply-chain planning processes.
From automating spreadsheets to scaling cross-border ecommerce and now steering quick-commerce categories, Padavala’s trajectory tracks the evolution of India’s retail economy itself. Blinkit’s bet is clear: blend data, discipline and delivery speed. The promotion formalises what his career already suggests. In the race for instant commerce, experience that moves from warehouse floors to global dashboards is no longer optional. It is the engine.
e-commerce
Bharatpe plays a super over as Rohit Sharma fronts T20 push
MUMBAI: When the stakes rise and seconds matter, even payments need a match-winning finish. That’s the cue for Bharatpe, which has rolled out Super Over, a nationwide campaign led by Indian cricket captain Rohit Sharma, timed neatly ahead of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
The campaign draws a straight line between the pulse of cricket and the pace of everyday digital payments. A new brand film taps into India’s emotional bond with the game, while positioning UPI as the quiet hero that keeps daily transactions ticking along at match speed.
As part of Super Over, users making payments via Bharatpe UPI can bag daily rewards ranging from match tickets and signed merchandise to a chance to watch a T20 World Cup fixture alongside Rohit Sharma himself. Both consumers and merchants are also assured Zillion Coins on every eligible transaction, adding a little extra sparkle to routine payments.
Behind the scenes, Bharatpe is also batting for safety. The platform is backed by Bharatpe Shield, a fraud-protection layer designed to offer enhanced security, comprehensive coverage and dedicated support aimed at helping users transact with greater confidence as digital payments scale up.
Announcing the campaign, Bharatpe head of marketing Shilpi Kapoor said Super Over mirrors the aspirations of everyday Indians, combining speed, security and instant rewards to make UPI transactions feel both reliable and rewarding.
The campaign will play out across digital platforms, social media and on-ground activations nationwide, staying live through the T20 World Cup season proof that in cricket, as in payments, timing is everything.
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