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  • Economic Times’ Sanjay Sindhwani is new digital CEO of Indian Express

    Economic Times’ Sanjay Sindhwani is new digital CEO of Indian Express

    MUMBAI: Indian Express Online Media Services, the digital arm of The Indian Express Group, has appointed Sanjay Sindhwani as its CEO. Sindhwani comes from The Economic Times, where he was VP-digital products and business head. He will report to group CEO George Varghese.

    He replaces Durga Raghunath who had resigned last December.

    The Indian Express Group executive editor Anant Goenka welcomed Sindhwani saying that he has known Sindhwani for close to three years and has also learned from him. In an email to the employees, Goenka wrote, “Sanjay joins us at the beginning of a year when public trust in the news media has hit an all-time low and when recognized news media brands are often being baited and are getting caught picking political sides.”

    Sindhwani has spent 24 of his 25-year career in the Times Group, which he had joined after brief stints at Bradma of India and Usha India. He joined Bennett & Coleman as an investment analyst in 1994. In 1999 he became editor, product and brand head at Times Internet. Sindhwani is an electronics engineer from Nagpur University and did his MBA in finance from the Institute of Management Studies.

  • Colgate remains India’s #1 Most Trusted Oral Care brand, for the 8th consecutive year, in Nielsen’s consumer survey

    Colgate remains India’s #1 Most Trusted Oral Care brand, for the 8th consecutive year, in Nielsen’s consumer survey

    MUMBAI: Colgate-Palmolive (India) Limited, the market leader in Oral Care, has been ranked as the Most Trusted Brand in the Oral Care category for the 8th year in a row, as per the India’s Most Trusted Brands Survey 2018, conducted by Nielsen and commissioned by Economic Times – Brand Equity.

    Mr. Issam Bachaalani, Managing Director, Colgate-Palmolive (India) Limited, said, “We are delighted and extremely thankful to our consumers for the trust they show Colgate every year to make Colgate India’s Most Trusted Oral Care brand. It is our constant endeavour to ‘keep India smiling’ by making a real impact in the lives of the people and through our 100% commitment to safety and quality to provide the best quality products.”

    About the survey: The Brand Equity Most Trusted Brands survey was conducted by Nielsen. At the first stage, sales, social buzz and media visibility data were analysed to arrive at a list of brands for further discussion and shortlisting for the Most Trusted Brand 2018 consumer survey. After considerable evaluations, the categories and brand list were finalised. In total, there were 341 brands that were considered as part of this year’s survey with the achieved sample size being 2200; conducted in January 2019 across 4 metro cities, Mumbai UA, Delhi NCR, Chennai and Kolkata.

    About Colgate-Palmolive (India) Limited: Colgate-Palmolive (India) Limited is the market leader in Oral Care in the country. The company manufactures and/or markets toothpastes, toothpowder, toothbrushes and mouthwashes under the ‘Colgate’ brand, as well as a specialized range of personal care products under the ‘Palmolive’ brand. For more information about Colgate's business and products, please visit www.colgatepalmolive.co.in

  • 5G to challenge 4G services: Jio President

    5G to challenge 4G services: Jio President

    MUMBAI: With time, third generation services (3G) were replaced by fourth generation services (4G) and Reliance Jio played a vital role in the transforming phase. And once again India’s youngest telecom company is eager to quickly roll out the ultra-fast fifth generation services (5G).

    While speaking to the Economic Times, Jio president Mathew Oommen spoke about the challenges which 4G will face after the deployment of 5G.

    Oommen explained, “Once 5G digital services arrive, business will be based on the actual value that the telcos offer a consumer in terms of digital solutions, content, and services.”

    He briefed about traditional pricing models being revamped, “4G will be challenged by the imminent wave of 5G services that will no longer be charged based on minutes, bits or bytes anymore.” Rather telcos would adapt to a new pricing mechanism which would look to measure the “overall revenue per subscriber” for a combination of digital services.

    With that being said, Jio believes that it’s high time for telcos to “either disrupt the marketplace or face disruption”.

    Oommen stated that “normalcy would soon get restored” in the telecom sector as once the telcos catch up with the technological advancement which will only increase usage that would drive compensation from newer services.

    The 5G spectrum allocations will take place by the second half of 2019 according to the government. Jio Chairman Mukesh Ambani recently had said that India would be ready for 5G services by 2020. Jio has indicated its eagerness to roll out 5G services as it seeks an early auction of 5G airwaves, whereas Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea want the auction dates to be pushed back to late-2019 and 2020, respectively.

  • Adarsh Nair appointed chief product officer of Bharti Airtel

    Adarsh Nair appointed chief product officer of Bharti Airtel

    MUMBAI: According to an Economic Times report, Adarsh Nair has been appointed as Bharti Airtel’s new chief product officer (CPO). Before this, Nair was the head, product and growth of US-based trucking start-up Convoy Inc. Now at Bharti Airtel, Nair will report to the company’s CEO Gopal Vittal.

    The CPO position at Bharti Airtel has been vacant since the previous product head Anand Chandrasekharan quit to join Snapdeal three years ago.

    Speaking to ET, a top company executive said that Nair will be “custodian of Bharti Airtel’s digital products and platforms” and work closely with the leadership team and partners to identify and prioritise market opportunities.

    Another top executive at Airtel said that the products head position had now evolved and taken on a much more strategic role. Chiefly, since the telco decided to evolve into a digital company as part of its Airtel 3.0 vision, Airtel would be deploying new age technologies and this is where the products head would come into play.

    With Airtel’s ongoing digital transformation, the CPO leadership position is reviving, said the executive.

  • Amazon set to acquire 9.5% stake in Future Retail

    Amazon set to acquire 9.5% stake in Future Retail

    MUMBAI: Ecommerce giant Amazon is all set to acquire a minority stake in Future Retail next week according to an Economic Times report. This deal will allow Amazon to reach the country’s food and grocery market through supermarket chains like Big Bazaar and Nilgiris. Future Retail has more than 1,100 physical stores across India.

    The deal is said to be around Rs 2,500 crore. Speaking to Economic Times, sources said, “Amazon, through the foreign portfolio investor (FPI) route, will buy about 9.5 per cent stake in Future Retail and has already signed a term sheet. The deal will be announced after board approval on 14 November.”

    Wazir Advisors founder Harminder Sahni said, “It essentially means Amazon is taking a position in offline retail. But it can’t just be a financial investment and they will surely leverage Future Group's network and backend facilities for supply chain and other operations."

  • Reliance Jio to maintain ARPU lead over Airtel, Vodafone Idea

    Reliance Jio to maintain ARPU lead over Airtel, Vodafone Idea

    MUMBAI: Indian telecom company, Reliance Jio, is most likely to maintain its lead on average revenue per user (ARPU) over its rivals Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea. The telco’s strategy in the market has paid off well by selectively choosing an inordinate share of 4G smartphone users and continuing to attract them with reasonable high-end voice and data offers.

    However, on Wednesday Jio posted a fall in its ARPU to Rs 131.7 for the July-September period from Rs 134.50 in April-June and from Rs 156 a year back. This was the third straight quarterly dip in ARPU for the telco but still anticipated to fare better than Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, which stands with an ARPU at Rs 96 each.
    For the time being, Reliance Jio exhibits an average 35 per cent more ARPU than its rivals, Airtel and Vodafone Idea.

    Speaking to Economic Times, Bharti Airtel former CEO Sanjay Kapoor said, “While Jio’s strategy was centred on garnering and retaining high-paying subscribers, its rivals dominated the lower paying subscriber markets”.

    Further explaining, “Incumbents, on the other hand, have a reasonably large number of customers, in the featurephone segment, who are voice-only users and have extremely low ARPU of less than Rs 30,” added Kapoor.

    And according to Kapoor, Jio is the current thought leader of the market and is likely to determine the future ARPU trends in the Indian telecom market.

    KPMG head of technology media and telecom Mritunjay Kapur explained that Jio has been trying to maintain its ARPU and most probably will continue to have ARPU higher than the current industry average based on its voice, data and media & entertainment strategy.

  • Airtel partners Flipkart, MakeMyTrip, Netflix to counter Jio

    Airtel partners Flipkart, MakeMyTrip, Netflix to counter Jio

    MUMBAI: Indian global telecommunications company Bharti Airtel is teaming up with Flipkart, MakeMyTrip and Netflix to provide customised offers for its consumers, in a bid to compete with Reliance Jio.

    Reliance Jio, having experienced a huge growth over time, used the same strategy to attract customers. Airtel will also attempt to expand itself into a digital platform to attract more customers.

    According to a report by The Economic Times, the offer will be harboured under the #AirtelThanks privilege membership programme. Subscribers who contribute a monthly revenue of over Rs 100 on an average can enjoy the benefits of the offer. On the principle, higher the recharge, bigger the offer value.

    Flipkart will offer cash backs in the form of coupon recharges on buying a smartphone from the ecommerce platform.

    The idea is to make sure a subscriber stays with the firm. “We studied telcos across the globe including T Mobile and Telstra for this,” said Bharti Airtel CMO Vani Venkatesh.

    Speaking to ET, Jaideep Ghosh, partner at consultancy firm KPMG explained how Reliance Jio’s services have demanded other telcos to rise a step up further. Explaining that, he said, “In the currently competitive landscape, traditional sources of plain vanilla telecom services and data services are facing intense pressure and telcos need to branch out into other services, Carriers need to get into partnerships to achieve this, which is crucial to their future growth.”

    Concluding this, Sameer Batra, CEO – content and apps, at Bharti Airtel said, “The more you are invested in the brand, the higher differentiated products and more options thrown to you”.

  • Facebook India’s Umang Bedi quits, Sandeep Bhushan to be interim MD

    Facebook India’s Umang Bedi quits, Sandeep Bhushan to be interim MD

    MUMBAI: Facebook India and South Asia MD Umang Bedi has put in his papers. Facebook has confirmed the development.

    For a smoother transition, Facebook confirmed that Bedi, who had joined in July last year, will be staying on for three months. Although no replacement has been announced, Sandeep Bhushan would be the interim MD.

    A Facebook spokesperson said, “We confirm that Umang Bedi will be leaving at the end of this year. He’s built a really strong team and business during his time with us, and we wish him all the best.”

    Bedi is the recipient of the prestigious ‘40 Under Forty: India’s Hottest Business Leaders Award 2014’ given away by The Economic Times and Spencer Stuart in 2014.

    Bedi, an engineering graduate from University of Pun and an alumnus of Harvard Business School, had come to Facebook from Adobe India, where he was the managing director south Asia, replacing Kirthiga Reddy — who had served for over five years and returned to Facebook headquarters in the US.

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