MAM

Urban India gives lockdown decision a thumbs up: TRA white-paper

Published

6 years ago

April 24, 2020

MUMBAI: TRA Research, a consumer insights and brand analytics company, today released its white-paper on the findings of its research survey conducted across 16 cities from 10 April to 22 April 2020. The white-paper titled "TRA’s Coronavirus Consumer Insights 2020", is based on research conducted across 16 cities with 902 urban citizens and delves into their perceptions, attitudes, worries, fears and expectations who have been under voluntary house-arrest for nearly a month.

According to the white-paper, the overall effectiveness of the lockdown decision across cities was at 91 per cent, with five of the sixteen cities giving it above 98 per cent or ‘excellent’ score. However, the overall implementation of the same across cities was much lower, at 74 per cent.

TRA Research CEO N Chandramouli said, “The lockdown decision and implementation had a significant gap of 24 per cent in terms of effectiveness. There are also big gaps in information and knowledge about the Coranavirus transmission, especially in two age brackets, 21 to 24 years and 46 to 50 years. The same information gap is seen across cities, barring Mumbai. The misinformation is impacting the attitudes and actions of citizens, for example, the belief that eating meat or eggs would.”

“Consumers’ trust on India’s Health Ability to combat crisis is considerably high, at 73 per cent, which translates as ‘good’, while their trust on India’s Economic Ability to combat crisis is significantly lower at 63 per cent, showing that the fears of a long term financial and economic impact are prominent on the minds of the citizens,” added Chandramouli.

On coping with the crisis, children were affected and data showed that this was not getting recognised and addressed by the family as the coping indices were significantly different for both. “Perhaps parents take the tantrums and confusion that children face during the lockdown as they would in normal times, often not addressing it directly. This is clearly indicated in the wide gap between the coping scores of children and the family. It is most important that parents take cognizance of the fact that children are going through extreme trauma during the lockdown, and need to take the time and effort to explain and guide their children through with empathy and love.”

In the Family Worry Index, the highest concern across cities was that the family may contract the disease (74 per cent), Job/business loss was the second biggest concern (68 per cent), and the delayed salary was third (62 per cent). Lucknow displayed the highest Family Worry Index at 85 per cent, followed by Nagpur at 81 per cent. The survey found that the Economic Impact Worry Index was at 66 per cet, showing that the personal worries overshadowed any other worry of the citizens.

While most cities are relatively aware of the disease symptoms, they are considerably ill-informed about the disease spread. Misinformation is highest about disease spread in Delhi followed by Chandigarh. Delhi, however, scored the highest in terms of the knowledge on symptoms, followed by Mumbai which was nearly two-third lower in this quotient.

MAM

Nielsen launches co-viewing pilot to sharpen TV measurement

Super Bowl pilot to refine how shared TV audiences are counted

Published

3 days ago

February 4, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

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

Published

1 week ago

January 31, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

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

Published

1 week ago

January 31, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

SINGAPORE: Anuvrat Rao has taken charge as APAC head of commerce and signals partnerships at Meta, steering monetisation deals across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp from Singapore. The former Google executive, known for launching Google Assistant, PWAs, AMP and Firebase across Asia-Pacific, steps into the role after a high-growth stint as chief business officer at Locofy.ai.

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.