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  • Hospitality PR veteran swaps solo consultancy for corporate suite

    Hospitality PR veteran swaps solo consultancy for corporate suite

    BENGALURU: After six years and eight months steering her own ship, Gayatri Dravid has docked at Rosetta Hospitality this September as group head for corporate communications and marketing—trading the freedoms of consultancy for the clout of a corporate corner office in Bengaluru.

    Dravid launched Gayatri Dravid PR in February 2019, carving out a niche in hospitality and travel communications after a decade-plus climbing the industry ladder. The move followed a near-two-year stint as associate vice president for communications at RMZ Corp, where she honed her skills in corporate messaging for one of India’s largest real estate developers.

    Before going solo, Dravid spent over three years as director of PR and strategy at Quo Global’s India operations, the Thai multinational specialising in hospitality branding. There she positioned India’s first Pullman hotel and North India’s first Novotel at New Delhi Airport, orchestrated launches for seven hotels across Asia in three years for Onyx Hospitality group, and developed the complete visual identity—logo, colour palette, tone—for Tiger Palace Resort and Casino’s Nepal debut.

    Her CV reads like a greatest-hits compilation of India’s luxury hotel landscape. She led pre-opening communications for the 523-room JW Marriott New Delhi Aerocity in 2012, JW’s first launch in the capital. Before that, nearly three years at The Leela Palaces saw her spearhead PR for the group’s flagship property in New Delhi, manage award-winning resorts in Goa, Kovalam and Udaipur, and launch ESPA spa and Warren Tricomi salon partnerships. She even copy-edited The Leela’s first coffee-table book.

    Earlier stops included Genesis Burson-Marsteller, where she handled Channel [v], Royal Bank of Scotland and Lakmé Fashion Week, and a year teaching business communications in Pune as guest faculty for the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

    Now Dravid returns to the mothership—not as consultant, but commander. Rosetta just hired someone who’s spent 17 years learning every trick in the hospitality playbook.

  • TV9 Network hosts News9 Global Summit 2025 Germany edition in Stuttgart

    TV9 Network hosts News9 Global Summit 2025 Germany edition in Stuttgart

    MUMBAI: TV9 Network is set to host the second News9 Global Summit – Germany Edition in Stuttgart on 9–10 October 2025, celebrating 25 years of India-Germany strategic partnership.

    The Summit, themed “Democracy | Demography | Development: The India-Germany Connect,” brings together policymakers, corporate leaders, and thought innovators from both nations to explore trade, technology, and collaborative opportunities.

    Presented by the Government of Maharashtra and MIDC, co-hosted by Vfb Stuttgart and supported by the State of Baden-Württemberg, the event promises high-level dialogue and actionable insights. Gold partners Fintiba and Barmer, Silver partners MHP – A Porsche Company and Tata Ace Pro, alongside other institutional and strategic partners, anchor the discussions.

    The Germany edition began in Berlin on 6 October at the Axica Convention Centre, adjacent to the Brandenburg Gate. Over 200 innovators, startups, and investors attended, with keynotes from India’s Ambassador to Germany HE Ajit Gupte, and spotlight sessions featuring Vijay Chauthaiwale, Anandi Iyer, Stefan Halusa, and Jörg Müller. The journey continues through Munich and Karlsruhe, culminating in Stuttgart for the main Summit dialogue.

    TV9 Network, MD & CEO Barun Das said, “The Summit is about more than dialogue; it’s about building trust in a multipolar world. Stuttgart, a hub of engineering, innovation, and diplomacy, is the perfect stage for India’s narrative as the world’s fastest-growing major economy.”

    Vfb Stuttgart chief marketing & sales officer Rouven Kasper added, “Sport and dialogue share a common language, teamwork, resilience, and innovation. Co-hosting the Summit reflects these shared values and celebrates the India-Germany connect beyond trade and technology.”

    The Summit’s lineup is a blend of policy, industry, and culture: From Germany and Europe Johann David Wadephul, Nina Warken, Maroš Šefčovič, and state leaders including Winfried Kretschmann and Frank Nopper; Industry voices Andreas Lapp, Joachim Erdle, Bernd-Otto Hörmann, alongside innovators like Honza Ngo and Jan-Frederik Dammenhain; Strategic experts Karl-Heinz Grossmann (Airbus Defence & Space), captain Michael Giss (Bundeswehr), cultural innovators Alexander Heinrich and Thomas Diehl.

    From India, the Summit includes Piyush Goyal and Devendra Fadnavis (virtual), with in-person participation from Anurag Singh Thakur, Uday Samant, and HE Ajit Gupte, supported by policy and economic thought leaders like Arvind Virmani and Sachin Kumar Sharma, as well as industry leaders including Vivek Lall, Pankaj Vyas, Anandi Iyer, and Ujjwal Jyoti.

    Cultural and creative perspectives feature chef Kunal Kapur, captain Zoya Agarwal, and new-generation innovators Siddharth Bhasin and Markus Besch.

    The News9 Global Summit 2025 – Germany Edition continues TV9 Network’s mission of placing India at the heart of global dialogue while redefining bilateral cooperation, innovation, and strategic partnerships for the next 25 years.

  • Truecaller launches AI-powered platform ‘advantage’ that boosts smarter ad targeting

    Truecaller launches AI-powered platform ‘advantage’ that boosts smarter ad targeting

    MUMBAI: When AI meets communication, magic happens. Truecaller, the global communications platform, has unveiled advantage, an AI-powered recommendation engine designed to revolutionise how businesses engage users in high-attention moments.

    Built on a central intelligence hub that continuously learns from user interactions, adVantage tailors messages across business messaging, contextual advertising, and enterprise solutions. By analysing anonymised, aggregated data in real time, the platform delivers highly personalised, privacy-safe experiences for consumers while helping businesses optimise engagement and drive growth.

    “Relevance is the new currency,” said Truecaller global CEO Rishit Jhunjhunwala. “advantage ensures businesses don’t just reach users, they understand them and provide value at every touchpoint. It’s central to our strategy of building scalable growth engines and redefining how businesses create impact.”

    The platform’s pilot phase showed impressive results: open rates jumped 400 per cent on Truecaller’s messaging platform, with up to a 50 per cent lift in click-through rates across high-intent sectors like automotive, fintech, edtech, and e-commerce. The framework reaches over 200 million users, transforming brand awareness into measurable outcomes.

    Advantage operates through three modules: Discover: Identifies new, relevant audience segments and expands visibility; engage: ee-targets users to boost mid-funnel performance and guide conversions; perform: optimises key business outcomes such as leads, app installs, and direct commerce automatically.

    “Truecaller advantage gives businesses a real edge,” said advantage lead  Liniker Seixas. “Multiple AI models continuously learn and optimise campaigns, ensuring every investment drives stronger results.”

    By harnessing Truecaller’s ecosystem, advantage empowers brands to reach the right audience, deepen engagement, and accelerate conversions, all while staying privacy compliant.

     

  • Rodim India strengthens leadership with Amresh Khar as SVP, Sales & Marketing

    Rodim India strengthens leadership with Amresh Khar as SVP, Sales & Marketing

    MUMBAI: Rodim India, a brand of Basf, has appointed Amresh Khar as senior vice president – sales & marketing (India), a move aimed at steering the company’s expansion strategy and strengthening its presence in both domestic and international automotive markets.

    With over 22 years in the automotive industry, Khar brings leadership experience from Mahindra First Choice Wheels, Volkswagen Group Sales, Honda Cars, Castrol India, and his own entrepreneurial venture, Mad About Wheels. An IIM Bangalore alumnus with an mba from UBI Brussels and a bachelor’s in engineering from Maharashtra, he has built one of India’s fastest-expanding automotive installation teams, managing a workforce of 200 plus skilled professionals.

    “I am delighted to join Rodim India at such a pivotal stage,” said Amresh Khar. “I look forward to leveraging my experience to scale our skilled workforce, drive expansion, build strong customer relationships, and establish Rodim as a leader in redefining automotive care in India and beyond.”

    Backed by Basf Germany, the one of the world’s leading paint companies since 1865, Rodim India is known for innovation, durability, and trust. The company offers German-engineered paint protection films (PPF), automotive paints, and care solutions designed to protect original car paint and set new standards in automotive excellence.

     

  • Rejected by Google in 2013, entrepreneur returns as boss of startup division

    Rejected by Google in 2013, entrepreneur returns as boss of startup division

    GURUGRAM: Life moves in circles, not straight lines. Ragini Das, who fumbled Google’s final interview round in 2013, has just been handed the keys to Google for Startups India this October—a delicious plot twist that took 12 years, two groundbreaking ventures and one failed final round to materialise.

    Back in 2013, Das had two shots on goal: Google and Zomato. Google said no. Zomato said yes. That rejection turned into a six-year masterclass in building consumer-tech brands. She went from selling ad space across Hyderabad, Bangalore and Delhi to spearheading Zomato Gold’s meteoric rise from zero to 2 million users, launching the subscription service across ten international markets from Australia to Lebanon. The company awarded her its first-ever “spark award” for spreading Zomato’s culture inside and outside the firm.

    In 2020, Das took the entrepreneurial plunge, co-founding leap.club—India’s largest social-professional network for women. Over five-and-a-half years, she scaled it to 25,000-plus paid members and $3 million-plus in revenue, creating an online app and India’s first women-only offline club. The  venture raised $2.2 million from venture capitalists and angel investors, with women comprising half the cap table. “If member love was an actual currency, leap.club would have been a unicorn,” Das wrote when announcing the pause in operations this June.

    After the shutdown, Das spent the summer recharging: creating art, chasing fitness goals, travelling and photographing Jimmy, her dog. Then August arrived with a role at Google that sat squarely at the intersection of everything she’d built—zero-to-ten ventures, founders, growth. Two months of conversations later, the job was hers.

    Now Das leads Google’s mission to connect Indian startups with the right people, products and practices to scale. She’s also taken on a voluntary role as chair of FICCI’s women in startups committee, championing visibility, capital access and policy influence for women-led ventures. A member of the 6 am club, she reserves weekends for mentoring young women in business and, naturally, Jimmy.

    Twelve years ago, Google’s rejection stung. Today, Das walks through the front door—as the boss. Full circle doesn’t begin to cover it.

  • Marathon runner trades super-app for banking sprint

    Marathon runner trades super-app for banking sprint

    MUMBAI: Sheran Mendiratta Mehra has laced up her running shoes for a new race. The marketing veteran who helped build Tata Digital’s super-app to 100m-plus users has joined IndusInd Bank as chief marketing officer this September, leaving behind a six-year stint that transformed India’s digital commerce landscape.

    At Tata Digital, Mehra wore multiple hats with characteristic stamina. As chief business officer since July 2024 and chief brand officer cum business head for hotels since April 2022, she orchestrated the brand strategy for one of India’s most ambitious digital ventures. Before that, she spent nearly three years as chief brand officer, shaping product design and brand identity from the ground up.

    Her CV reveals her wide exposure to financial services and hospitality marketing. Six years at DBS Bank as executive director for group strategic marketing and communications, where she also championed social entrepreneurship through the bank’s corporate social responsibility arm. Stints at Dhanlaxmi Bank, Barclays and HSBC showcased her knack for turnarounds—she pushed top-of-mind recall to 52 per cent during Barclays’ India launch and co-led the country’s first mobile banking service, Hello Money.

    Earlier pit stops included heading resort marketing at Mahindra Holidays, where she boosted wallet share by 25-30 per cent, and agency-side roles at Ogilvy & Mather and Lintas, where she cut her teeth relaunching Huggies with sales surging over 15 per cent.

    The 25-year marketing strategist brings more than spreadsheets and campaigns to IndusInd. A distance runner for over a decade, Mehra champions the notion that peak performance in the boardroom and on the trail aren’t mutually exclusive. She’s vocal about mentoring female leaders in tech whilst maintaining her daily running practice—a fitting metaphor for someone who sees finish lines as starting points.

    IndusInd just hired someone who runs towards challenges, not away from them.

  • Explurger goes global: India’s travel social app wins praise from Sonu Sood

    Explurger goes global: India’s travel social app wins praise from Sonu Sood

    MUMBAI: Bollywood actor and philanthropist Sonu Sood has put the spotlight on Explurger, a homegrown social media platform for travellers, echoing prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for Indian innovation to go global.

     

     

    Launched three years ago by Jitin Bhatia and Sonu Sood, Explurger has rapidly grown to over 17 million users worldwide. The travel-focused app combines AI-powered travelogues, real-time journey tracking, and community sharing, all under the mantra ‘Get Out – Get Social.’ Rather than endless scrolling, the platform encourages users to explore new destinations, check in with Explurge-ins, complete bucket lists, and earn gamified rewards.

    “The Prime Minister’s call for innovation within India’s digital ecosystem highlights the country’s confidence in building its own technology frameworks,” said founder and CEO Jitin Bhatia. “Explurger embodies that mindset entirely developed in India, powered by Indian talent, and designed to resonate globally. We want to show that Indian tech can innovate and inspire on the world stage.”

    PM Modi has repeatedly emphasised the importance of homegrown solutions. In a recent speech, he urged Indians to buy and sell Swadeshi goods and nurture platforms that meet domestic needs while competing internationally.

    With its unique blend of real-world adventure and social connectivity, Explurger has become a shining example of Make-in-India ingenuity in the social media space. As the platform continues its global push, it demonstrates that India isn’t just building apps, it’s building experiences that travel the world.

     

  • RR Kabel crowns 41 winners of Kabel star season four scholarship in Mumbai

    RR Kabel crowns 41 winners of Kabel star season four scholarship in Mumbai

    MUMBAI: Lighting up futures, one Kabel Dost at a time. RR Kabel, India’s leading consumer electrical and wire manufacturer, has announced the winners of its Kabel star scholarship program 2025 in Mumbai, celebrating four years of nurturing talent with a total commitment of Rs four crore.

    The scholarship, designed for children of electricians who passed their 10th-grade exams, provides Rs 10,000 each to deserving students, helping them pursue higher secondary education. This year, Mumbai witnessed 41 honourees, recognised at a special ceremony at La Banquet, Odean Mall, alongside top performers from season two, who also received laptops to support their studies.

    Since its launch in 2022, the Kabel Star Scholarship has selected nearly 4,000 students nationwide, reinforcing RR Kabel’s vision of an educated and empowered India. By opening new educational pathways, the initiative ensures that financial constraints do not limit ambition, inspiring countless success stories among past recipients.

    “Our Kabel Dost have always been more than business partners, they are the foundation of our journey. With the Kabel star scholarship, we’re opening doors to possibilities that can change lives for generations,” said RR Global director Kirti Kabra. “Every child who dreams big deserves a chance to achieve it, and this program ensures no dream is limited by circumstance.”

    For the winners and their families, the event was a moment of pride and emotion, recognising perseverance, dedication, and the drive to build successful careers. Through this program, RR Kabel continues to invest in the next generation of leaders, giving children of electricians a strong platform to unlock their full potential.

     

  • Beyond the reel, India’s tech dreams take shape

    Beyond the reel, India’s tech dreams take shape

    MUMBAI: Lights, camera, revolution! The silver screen is turning digital, and India’s film industry is ready for its next big act, one fuelled by technology, imagination and a dash of innovation.

    At FICCI Frames 2025, the session “Beyond Imagination: The Future of Filmmaking” brought together industry leaders to explore how new-age tools like AI, VFX and virtual production are transforming storytelling. The discussion came in the wake of the Maharashtra government’s Rs 3,268 crore AVGC-XR Policy 2025, an ambitious plan to make the state a global powerhouse for animation, gaming and extended reality.

    DNEG co-founder and president Merzin Tavaria set the tone for the session. “Content is still king,” he said. “Technology should help us tell better stories, not distract from them. AI is here to stay as a tool, but it must never replace the individual.” He added that India’s post-pandemic film resurgence has proven the world-class calibre of its creators.

    Phantomfx founder and CEO Bejoy Arputharaj urged filmmakers to evolve with technology. “Filmmakers must embrace the changing landscape,” he said. “Virtual production and AI aren’t here to take over, they’re here to help us imagine what was once impossible.”

    From Japan, Dwarf Studios CEO Shuhei Harada emphasised originality over imitation. “The world doesn’t need more copies,” he said. “India should focus on creating authentic, original entertainment. Bringing international talent here can help local creators learn new methods and grow faster.”

    Moscow Film Cluster deputy director Georgy Prokopov called for international collaboration. “Russia and India can build a technology bridge,” he suggested. “Shared virtual production infrastructure can reduce costs and accelerate creative exchange.”

    Meanwhile, FICCI AVGC-XR Forum chair and Graphiti Studios co-founder Munjal Shroff stressed the need for India to sharpen its technical edge. “We already have the talent and the tools,” he said. “Now it’s about mastery, using technology not as a crutch but as a canvas.”

    As the session wrapped, the takeaway was clear: the next blockbuster might not just be shot in India, it could be built here, pixel by pixel. Because in the cinema of tomorrow, the script won’t just be written. It will be rendered.
     

  • Gramiyaa packs cold-pressed oils in cartons to preserve freshness

    Gramiyaa packs cold-pressed oils in cartons to preserve freshness

    BENGALURU: India’s cooking oil aisle is getting a makeover. Gramiyaa, a Bengaluru-based producer of wood cold-pressed oils, has launched what it claims is the country’s first gable-top carton packaging for cooking oils—a format designed to keep oils fresher for longer.

    The redesigned packaging, unveiled under the brand’s Fresh Drip campaign, swaps conventional plastic and glass bottles for fully opaque, nitrogen-flushed cartons. The company says this locks in freshness from seed to seal, preserving aroma and nutrition that typically degrade in traditional packaging.

    “Packaging is only part of the story,” said Gramiyaa founder Sibi Manivannan. “We go the extra mile to ensure our oils stay fresh naturally.” The brand employs natural sedimentation and cotton fabric filtration to remove seed residue that can turn rancid and accelerate spoilage.

    Each batch undergoes a three-step process: natural seed sedimentation allows particles to settle slowly; cotton fabric filtration removes residual sediments; and nitrogen flush sealing removes oxygen before sealing to prevent oxidation and nutrient loss. The carton’s multi-layer opaque design blocks light and air, whilst a double-seal provides an airtight barrier that locks in aroma even after opening.

    All Gramiyaa oils are wood cold-pressed in-house at the company’s facility in Trichy, Tamil Nadu. Each carton features a QR code revealing exactly when and where the oil was pressed. The brand controls the entire supply chain—sourcing directly from farmers, manufacturing, lab-testing and packaging on-site.

    “The cooking oil industry hasn’t changed its packaging in nearly a century,” added Manivannan. “We asked ourselves—if freshness is what matters most, why not design for it?”

    The brand offers a range of wood cold-pressed oils, including groundnut, coconut, sesame and mustard oil, catering to diverse culinary traditions whilst preserving natural flavour and aroma.

    As health-conscious Indians increasingly reject heavily processed oils, Gramiyaa is betting that what works for milk and juice can work for the kitchen staple that’s been sold in bottles since before independence. The real test will be whether consumers are willing to pour their cooking oil from a carton.