Arvind Parakh has been appointed CEO of Corporate Strategy and Finance. Incidentally, the appointment comes at a time when the real estate industry, particularly Omaxe Group, is going through quick changes and expansion. Parakh comes with years of experience and has led many companies to big league position. He was earlier with Jindal Stainless as Director-Finance for 10 years.
Saurabh Varma, VP, Cinema Marketing & Promotions, PVR Ltd, who recently put in his papers, has joined INOX Leisure as VP, Programming & Film Distribution. His new role entails developing strategies for film releases. He has moved to Mumbai and reports to the company’s CEO, Alok Tandon. Apart from several stints with PVR, Varma has also worked as a consultant for various companies including Chanakya Cinemas. He was associated with Waves Cinemas as Head of Marketing and Programming for two and a half years.
Niladri Banerjee has joined ABP Group as Chief Manager, Brand, for the flagship Ananda Bazaar Patrika .Prior to this, he was with Lintas Media, Mumbai.
Shuvojit Ganguly has recently joined Kolkata Plus as Associate Director. Kolkata Plus is the general entertainment channel from SST Media, a part of the Kolkata-based Xenitis Group .The channel is slated to go on air in January 2007. Prior to his present assignment, Shuvojit was with Reliance Adlabs, Kolkata.
EXL Service Holdings, Inc. has appointed Pramode Metre, Vice-president and Chief Sales & Marketing Officer. Metre will be responsible for EXL’s sales, marketing, business development and industry relations. He will be based in New York. He moves from Syntel, Inc. where he was Senior VP, Business Development. He has also been CEO of NetPilgrim, Inc., a technology community portal. He had previously been based in India for three years and helped lead Compaq’s growth here. He began his career with DCM Data Products.
Another addition to Yahoo!’s Bangalore centre is Pete Deemer who has moved from Yahoo!’s Sunnyvale office to become Chief Product Officer of Yahoo! India R&D. Deemer who joined Yahoo! Inc in 2003, was till recently VP-Product Development, overseeing Yahoo!’s product development practices, product quality and integration efforts. In his new role, he is closely aligned to the CPO office in Sunnyvale, USA. He is helping the Bangalore office define the strategy for the products being built and evolving the product development process besides incubating some exciting new product initiatives.
Pranesh Anthapur has been appointed COO of Yahoo! India R&D. He will work with the senior management team to put Yahoo! India R&D on a growth trajectory. Anthapur will head up operations as well as bring new ideas to the company's R&D centre in Bangalore. Anthapur recently moved to Bangalore from Sunnyvale, the Yahoo! HQ in California. He brings with him a wealth of experience in talent acquisition, talent development and cross border general management. He is a seven-year Yahoo! Veteran.
Time magazine will become the first major consumer magazine to step up to the challenge of changing the way glossy ads are bought by encouraging advertisers to buy against its total audience figures, rather than a rate base.
Disney's internet and download revenues could total approximately $700 million in fiscal year 2007. CEO Bob Iger touted the successes so far. ABC.com has serviced almost 19 million requests for the free broadcast episodes available for streaming in the first six weeks of the fall season.
Raymond's 'complete man' is making place for the woman, too, as the textiles to apparel company launches more brands of clothes for women.
An off-form Sachin Tendulkar has not lost his appeal. Close on the heels of Canon appointing him as their brand ambassador, Sunfeast has entered into a ‘co-creation’ deal with the cricketer that will see ITC Foods launch ‘Sunfeast Sachin’s Fit Kit’ range of health food products, in the making of which Tendulkar will play an active role.
Maruti has partnered with mobile marketing and technology solutions company ActiveMedia Technology to drive its wireless campaigns. The auto major has integrated ActiveMedia’s short code platform 3636 with its mainline media to promote its exchange scheme and drive lead generation for its Omni brand.
The latest season of MTV Roadies is all set to take off on November 11. With 13 finalists, MTV Hero Honda Roadies, has VJ Rannvijay as the host this season.
Mohit S Balani, Group Programming & Creative Services Head, Channel 4 Radio Network, UAE, is back with his column ‘Radio Fundas’.
The popular ‘Fame Gurukul’ is set to hit the small screen in a new avatar as ‘Fame X’ on SAB from November 24. The reality show will air Monday to Thursday at 9.00 pm and on Fridays at 10.00 pm. SAB has roped in MTV to be part of the jury of ‘Fame X’.
Neo Sports Broadcast Pvt Ltd will broadcast Live the Duleep Trophy finals, to be played in Eden Gardens, Kolkata, from November 12-16, 2006. The finals will be telecast Live on Neo Sports, a 24-hour cricket centric sports channel, in English, and on Neo Sports Plus, a sports entertainment channel, in Hindi.
The Promax BDA Asia Awards 2006 have been dominated by TV channels this year, with Sony Entertainment Television and STAR India leading the tally. While SET bagged five Golds and 10 Silvers, STAR India bagged six Golds and three Silvers.
The average young Asian spends three hours on instant messaging a day, one and a half hours on emails and 1.4 hours taking part in various online community activities. The average young Asian accesses the Net 4.8 times a week; while two-thirds of Asians in the 15-24 age group use it on a daily basis, a Synovate survey on Young Asians has found.
PepsiCo India will soon have a new boss in India. Sanjeev Chadha, an old Pepsi hand and currently head of the cola major's Asian beverage sales category, will be replacing current PepsiCo India boss Rajiv Bakshi.