MAM
Global experts advise Indian retail industry to ‘lead change’
NEW DELHI: On the second day of the KSA Retail Summit, global experts advised the Indian retail industry to ‘lead change.’ The Indian customers today look for solutions rather than products; and customisation and personalisation rather than generalization. They have an expanding spending basket and are reassigning spends. In such a scenario, brands and retailers in India have to be creative to attract the rapidly evolving Indian customers and build a profitable business.
The second day saw leading international and Indian retailers sharing their experience and thoughts on this challenging new prospect.
Talking on ‘Spotting Winning Concepts’, KSA Technopak, India chairman Arvind Singhal said, “Indian retailers today need to invest heavily in understanding the emerging needs of the evolving Indian customer. There has to be a mind shift towards offering innovative and time/cost effective ‘solutions’ that go beyond retail formats.”
Singhal elaborated that the Indian customer can be segmented into five genres, which are also rapidly evolving:
a) Demography: Rapidly evolving market for retail concepts that cater to tween/ teen demands and women/ infant needs,
b) Trading up/trade down: Retailers need to aggressively tap rising lifestyle spends on mobile phones, cars, etc while insuring themselves against a trade down that will affect regular spends on grocery, eating out, apparel, etc.,
c) Ethnicity: The celebration of cultural diversity in money terms. Customers will seek out authentic and ethnic experiences e.g. The popularity of Dilli Haat as a mini India;
d) Time starvation: Need for products that ‘do the rest’ for time starved consumers
e) Around my needs: Big potential for hot retail concepts that micro target i.e. provide products and experiences that are customized to suit specific tastes and preferences.
Addressing a question from the audience on whether the entry of foreign players will hurt the domestic market, Esprit, Asia regional director Peter Hammond said, “The entry of international brands will positively impact the market by helping increase the size of the retail pie. International brands are looking at creating new customers and won’t eat into the existing customer base of the domestic players.”
Ethan Allen, USA chairman, president and CEO Farooq Kathwari emphasized that the rules of retailing need to be written continually for delighting the consumer. He emphasized that change should be seen as an opportunity to realize greater potential.
Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
