MAM
Modi effect: India’s economic confidence upbeat, reports Ipsos
MUMBAI: The Lok Sabha elections of 2014 were won on the promise of ‘achhe din aane wale hai’ (good days are going to come).
And riding on that hope, Indians are very confident that Narendra Modi-led NDA government will carry on making progress on its domestic reforms agenda and encourage investments that will trigger economic growth and create more jobs.
With more than seven in 10 (71 per cent) people expecting that the economy in their local area will be stronger in next six months, makes India the most optimistic country in the world.
Indians have emerged as the second most confident people about their economy globally by end of 2014. This is on account of falling inflation due to lower oil prices, government’s commitment to contain fiscal deficit, promote investment and economic development, according to a report by global research firm Ipsos.
According to the ‘Ipsos Economic Pulse of the World’ study, India’s economic confidence level has shot up to 81 per cent in December 2014, a very significant rise of 29 points over the past 12 months.
More than half, 53 per cent Indians believe that the local economy, which impacts their personal finance is good. “The repo interest rate cut by RBI on Thursday from 8 per cent to 7.75 per cent is expected to boost economic confidence and add further momentum to economic growth,” said Ipsos India managing director Amit Adarkar.
“The decision was primarily guided by dip in inflation, a sharp fall in global crude prices and expectations that the government would be doing enough to keep the fiscal deficit in check,” he added.
The online Ipsos Economic Pulse of the World survey was conducted in November 2014 among 19,152 people in 24 countries.
The clear winners in economic confidence recovery over the past 12 months in 2014 include India (+29), Great Britain (+19), China (+17), Russia (+12, but with a precipitous slide over the past four months (-18)), Poland (+11), United States (+11), Spain (+10) and Saudi Arabia (+5). The clear losers include Brazil (-11), South Korea (-11), and Argentina (-7).
Those countries with marginal positive movement include Belgium (+2), Italy (+2), Egypt (+1), France (+1), Germany (+1), Hungary (+1) and Mexico (+1). Countries on positive watch include China (although it may have peaked), Great Britain, Poland, Spain and the United States.
Those countries with marginal negative movement include Canada (-1), South Africa (-1), and Turkey (-2). Countries on negative watch include Argentina, Belgium, Brazil and Sweden.
After showing slight improvement in November 2014, the average global economic assessment of national economies surveyed in 24 countries is down one point as 40 per cent of global citizen’s rate their national economies to be ‘good’.
Despite two point decline, Saudi Arabia (85 per cent) remains at the top of the national economic assessment in December 2014, followed by India (81 per cent), China (78 per cent), Germany (74 per cent), Canada (67 per cent) and Sweden (67 per cent). At the other end of the assessment, only a small minority rate their national economy as good in France (6 per cent), followed by Italy (8 per cent), Spain (10 per cent), South Korea (11 per cent), Hungary (13 per cent) and Romania (16 per cent).
Gaining momentum since last sounding, China (63 per cent) takes the lead in the local economy assessment ratings, which impacts people’s personal finance, followed by Saudi Arabia (61 per cent), India (53 per cent), Germany (52 per cent), Canada (47 per cent), Sweden (47 per cent) and Australia (40 per cent). Only one in ten (9 per cent) in Spain agree that the state of the current economy in their local area is ‘good’, followed by Italy (10 per cent), Japan (10 per cent), Romania (10 per cent), France (12 per cent), South Korea (13 per cent) and Hungary (14 per cent).
Once again, India (71 per cent) holds the lead in the future outlook assessment rating. The rest of the highest-ranking countries are: Brazil (58 per cent), China (53 per cent), Saudi Arabia (50 per cent), Egypt (46 per cent), Argentina (34 per cent) and Mexico (31 per cent). The lowest-ranking country this month is France (4 per cent), followed by Italy (9 per cent), Japan (10 per cent), Belgium (11 per cent), Hungary (11 per cent), South Korea (11 per cent) and Germany (15 per cent).
MAM
Nielsen launches co-viewing pilot to sharpen TV measurement
Super Bowl pilot to refine how shared TV audiences are counted
MUMBAI: Nielsen is taking a fresh stab at one of television’s oldest blind spots: how many people are actually watching the same screen. The audience-measurement giant on February 4 unveiled a co-viewing pilot that uses wearable devices to better capture shared viewing, starting with America’s biggest broadcast stage.
The trial begins with Super Bowl LX on NBC on February 8, 2026, before extending to other high-profile live sports and entertainment events in the first half of the year. The goal is simple but commercially potent: count viewers more accurately, especially during live spectacles that pull families and friends to one screen.
The new approach leans on Nielsen’s proprietary wearable meters, wrist-worn devices that resemble smartwatches. These passively capture audio signatures from TV content, logging exposure to shows, films and live events without requiring viewers to sign in or self-report. In theory, fewer clicks, fewer lapses, better data.
Karthik Rao, Nielsen’s ceo, cast the move as part of a broader measurement push. He said the company’s task is to keep pushing accuracy as clients invest heavily in live programming that draws mass audiences. The co-viewing pilot, he added, builds on upgrades such as Big Data + Panel measurement, out-of-home expansion, live-streaming metrics and wearable-based tracking.
Co-viewing is not new territory for Nielsen, which has long tried to estimate how many people sit before a single set. What is new is the heavier integration of wearables and passive detection to reduce reliance on active inputs from panel homes.
For now, the pilot comes with caveats. Co-viewing estimates from the trial will not be folded into Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel ratings, which remain the industry’s trading currency. Instead, pilot findings will be shared with clients a few weeks after final Big Data + Panel ratings are delivered. Clients may disclose those findings publicly.
More impact data will follow later this year. Full integration into Nielsen’s marketing-intelligence suite is slated as a longer-term play, with a target of bringing co-viewing into currency measurement for the 2026–2027 season. This is only phase one, with further co-viewing enhancements planned beyond 2026 and additional timelines to be announced.
The push fits a wider pattern. Nielsen has in recent years expanded big-data integration, adopted first-party data for live-streaming measurement and broadened out-of-home tracking. It also positions itself as the reference point for streaming metrics through products such as The Gauge and the Nielsen Streaming Top 10.
In a market where billions of ad dollars hinge on decimal points, counting who is in the room matters. If Nielsen can pin down shared viewing, the humble sofa could become prime measurement real estate. The race to count every eyeball just found a new wrist to watch.
Brands
Delhivery chairman Deepak Kapoor, independent director Saugata Gupta quit board
Gurugram: Delhivery’s boardroom is being reset. Deepak Kapoor, chairman and independent director, has resigned with effect from April 1 as part of a planned board reconstitution, the logistics company said in an exchange filing. Saugata Gupta, managing director and chief executive of FMCG major Marico and an independent director on Delhivery’s board, has also stepped down.
Kapoor exits after an eight-year stint that included steering the company through its 2022 stock-market debut, a period that saw Delhivery transform from a venture-backed upstart into one of India’s most visible logistics platforms. Gupta, who joined the board in 2021, departs alongside him, marking a simultaneous clearing of two senior independent seats.
“Deepak and Saugata have been instrumental in our process of recognising the need for and enabling the reconstitution of the board of directors in line with our ambitious next phase of growth,” said Sahil Barua, managing director and chief executive, Delhivery. The statement frames the exits less as departures and more as deliberate succession, a boardroom shuffle timed to the company’s evolving scale and strategy.
The resignations arrive amid broader governance recalibration. In 2025, Delhivery appointed Emcure Pharmaceuticals whole-time director Namita Thapar, PB Fintech founder and chairman Yashish Dahiya, and IIM Bangalore faculty member Padmini Srinivasan as independent directors, signalling a tilt towards consumer, fintech and academic expertise at the board level.
Kapoor’s tenure spanned Delhivery’s most defining years, rapid network expansion, public listing and the push towards profitability in a bruising logistics market. Gupta’s presence brought FMCG and brand-scale perspective during a period when ecommerce volumes and last-mile delivery economics were being rewritten.
The twin exits, effective from the new financial year, underscore a familiar corporate rhythm: founders consolidate, veterans rotate out, and fresh voices are ushered in to script the next chapter. In India’s hyper-competitive logistics race, even the boardroom does not stand still.
MAM
Meta appoints Anuvrat Rao as APAC head of commerce partnerships
At Locofy.ai, Rao helped convert a three-year free beta into a paid engine, clocking 1,000 subscribers and 15 enterprise clients within ten days of launch in September 2024. The low-code startup, backed by Accel and top tech founders, is famed for turning designs into production-ready code using proprietary large design models.
Before that, Rao founded generative AI venture 1Bstories, which was acquired by creative AI platform Laetro in mid-2024, where he briefly served as managing director for APAC. Alongside operating roles, he has been an active investor and advisor since 2020, backing startups such as BotMD, Muxy, Creator plus, Intellect, Sealed and CricFlex through a creator-economy-led thesis.
Rao spent over eight years at Google, holding senior partnership roles across search, assistant, chrome, web and YouTube in APAC, and earlier cut his teeth in strategy consulting at OC&C in London and investment finance at W. P. Carey in Europe and the US.
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