MAM
Mumbai Marathon: Media professionals run for a cause
MUMBAI: On the day that Mumbai runs, it’s another city altogether. No honking, no mad rush to reach somewhere, but an army of runners, who want to test their limits, painting a healthier sight of the maximum city.
Keeping aside the usual business suits, a whole bunch of executives right from broadcast companies, media agencies to marketers and advertisers will once again don their running shoes as they join others for the 2015 edition of the Mumbai Marathon.
The largest marathon in south east Asia, which will take place on 18 January, will see media veteran Bharat Kapadia running half marathon; his 12th marathon, overall. “Last year, I ranked 47th in my category. I started running at the age of 54. I have been training with a group called ‘Be Fit’ and we have been practicing on alternate days from 6 am to 8 am at Juhu Beach,” he says proudly.
Kapadia believes that for people, who are hesitant to run, it’s all a mind game. “Anybody can run. 75 per cent of it is a mind game. No one is a born athlete. Also, the benefits of running versus that of visiting a gym can’t be compared,” he adds.
Agrees his follow runner, HDFC Life marketing, product, digital and e-commerce senior executive vice president Sanjay Tripathy. “It is a great way to test your limits and prepare your mind for bigger challenges in the life. One can also see it as an opportunity to meet like-minded people,” he says, while adding that he will be running his seventh marathon for which he has been preparing for three months now.
For Spatial Access founder Meenakshi Menon running the dream marathon is like child’s play. A regular runner, Menon will be running for her NGO Vanashakti along the likes of film director Namita Roy Ghose. “Lately, running has become sexy so a lot more people are up for the challenge. I believe everyone should run for a cause because the country lacks social compassion and to be great country it is a must,” she opines.
India chairman and managing director Sunil Lulla will be running the half marathon with two partners of which one is physically handicapped. “I will be running for Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness,” says Lulla who is running his sixth marathon.
Media agency Vizeum India managing director Yesu Yesudas is running the marathon. And he has taken to social media to raise funds for two of his causes: an old age home and orphanage Swagat Ashram in Mumbai, and a tribal school Vidya Vanam in Tamil Nadu. “I have a desire to raise Rs 500,000 for these two causes. I am making a personal contribution of Rs 100,000,” he announced on Facebook. And he went on to urge his friends to contribute Rs 2,000 each to help him reach his goal.
GroupM ESP entertainment, sports and live events national director Vinit Karnik says that the property has been evolving over a period of time and it is highly commendable. “The organisers i.e. Procam have done a fantastic job and it is one of the most well respected and well organised sports property in India. Right from the registration of the participants to the doubts of the participants on the actual day about their well being is taken care of completely by the organizers,” he highlights.
This year five new brands, namely Cigna TTK, Jabong.com, Volini, TUI, and India Cares Foundation have associated with the event as health insurance, online retail, recovery, travel and philanthropy partners, respectively.
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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