MAM
Ajit Menon quits DDB Mudra; to join Dalmia Group
MUMBAI: DDB Mudra Group executive director, organisation development Ajit Menon has decided to move on. His next destination is the Dalmia Group where he will be executive director.
Menon will be based out of Gurgaon and in charge of HR and administration at Dalmia Group.
DDB Mudra Group is yet to find a replacement for Menon. The HR and administration functions will currently be divided between Sebastian Joseph (who has been recently elevated to the post of chief executive officer ) and Rita Verma who will take over the HR duties.
Talking to indiantelevision.com Menon said, “I have worked in almost all industries. The only industry left for me to work in was manufacturing. Dalmia is a traditional Indian company which has done very well for itself and is poised to take things to the next level. It is a similar situation to the one at DDB Mudra (before the takeover). It was an agency when I joined and I worked very closely with Madhukar Kamath to transform it into a communications group. It is the same challenge with the Dalmia Group, only that the scale is tenfold larger.”
Menon joined DDB Mudra Group (then Mudra Communications) in 2007 as executive vice president. In 2010 he was elevated to the post of Executive director- organization development. He has previously worked with Nirvava Business Solutions and WNS Global Services.
Menon was recently conferred with the Rashtriya Udyog Ratna award by the National Education and Human Resource Organisation and the Pride of HR award by Employer Brand Awards. In 2011, Menon won the ‘Exemplary Leader‘ Award at the Asia Pac Summit of the World HRD Congress.
Digital
Ethical AI must benefit society, not dominate it, says WFEB chief Sanjay Pradhan at IAA event
At Mumbai event, ethics expert urges businesses and governments to shape AI responsibly
MUMBAI: Artificial intelligence may be racing ahead at lightning speed, but its direction must still be guided by human conscience. That was the central message delivered by Sanjay Pradhan, president of the World Forum for Ethics in Business (WFEB), during the latest edition of IAA Conversations held in Mumbai.
The session was organised by the International Advertising Association (IAA) and the Artificial Intelligence Association of India (AIAI) in association with The Free Press Journal at the Free Press House on 7 March. Addressing a packed audience, Pradhan called for stronger ethical leadership to ensure AI remains a tool that benefits humanity rather than one that governs it.
“Artificial intelligence has rapidly become one of the most powerful technologies humanity has created,” Pradhan said. “It is unlocking breakthroughs in medicine, science and creativity at a pace unimaginable just a few years ago.”
But he warned that the same technology carries serious risks. AI, he noted, can amplify disinformation faster than facts can travel, compromise privacy, deepen discrimination and disrupt millions of livelihoods. Referencing concerns raised by AI pioneers such as Geoffrey Hinton, often called the godfather of AI, Pradhan stressed that the real challenge is not whether AI will shape the world, but whether humans will shape it with ethics and wisdom.
Structuring his talk around four guiding questions, why, what, how and who, Pradhan introduced the audience to WFEB’s emerging AI Ethics Partnership, a global platform aimed at advancing responsible artificial intelligence. He outlined four priority concerns that demand urgent attention: disinformation, bias and discrimination, data privacy and job security.
To make the idea of ethical AI easier to grasp, Pradhan offered a simple metaphor. Ethical AI, he said, is like a three layered cake. The outer layer represents the visible value ethical AI creates for businesses and society. The middle layer is organisational culture that moves ethics from written codes to everyday practice. The innermost layer, however, is the most crucial, the conscience of individual leaders.
Drawing from Indian philosophical thought through WFEB co-founder Ravi Shankar, Pradhan noted that while artificial intelligence can reproduce stored knowledge, true intelligence is boundless and rooted in conscience, creativity and compassion. Practices such as breathwork and meditation, he suggested, can help leaders develop the calm clarity needed for ethical decision making.
The event also featured a discussion with Maninder Adityaraj Singh, chief of staff and head of innovation at Rediffusion Brand Solutions Pvt Ltd, and Yash Johri, lawyer, Supreme Court of India.
Opening the session, IAA India chapter president Abhishek Karnani, highlighted the need for industries to understand and engage with AI responsibly.
“AI has to be befriended and understood,” added Rediffusion managing director and AIAI national convenor Sandeep Goyal. “Its ethical use will determine whether it becomes a friend or a foe.”
As AI continues to reshape industries and societies, Pradhan ended with a simple but powerful call to action. Businesses, governments and individuals must work together to ensure that the algorithms shaping the future reflect human values rather than just cold logic.
