Brands
Crossword powers Jaipur lit fest with a high-energy bookshop comeback
MUMBAI: Crossword Bookstores is returning to the Jaipur Literature Festival as its official bookstore partner, turning the 19th edition of the world-famous literary gathering into a full-throttle retail-and-reader campaign.
The chain will run a pop-up bookshop across the festival grounds, stocking titles by participating writers, festival picks and evergreen classics, alongside signings and reader-meets designed to convert footfall into sales and fandom. Authors scheduled for in-person engagement include Banu Mushtaq, Vir Das, Kiran Desai, Rujuta Diwekar, Javed Akhtar, Gaur Gopal Das and Viswanathan Anand.
“As Jaipur Literature Festival marks its 19th edition, we are proud to once again partner a platform that champions ideas and dialogue at a global scale,” said Crossword Bookstores CEO Aakash Gupta. “It reflects our shared belief in the power of books to spark conversation and connect cultures.”
The 2026 edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival will bring together award-winning authors, thinkers, poets, journalists and debut voices from around the world, with sessions spanning literature, politics, history, science and culture, alongside music and cultural showcases.
Brands
Faber-Castell India appoints Sunaina Haldar as director – marketing
With stints at Tata, SleepyCat and ADF Foods under her belt, Haldar is primed to redraw Faber-Castell’s brand story
MUMBAI: Faber-Castell India has poached Sunaina Haldar from ADF Foods, appointing her director – marketing as the German stationery brand looks to muscle up in a category that is rapidly reinventing itself around creativity and self-expression.
Haldar hit the ground running. “My first couple of weeks have been incredibly energising, understanding consumers, visiting markets, engaging with retailers and immersing myself into the world of Faber-Castell Group,” she said.
She arrives with considerable firepower. At ADF Foods, Haldar ran marketing across India and international markets for a portfolio spanning Ashoka, Aeroplane, Camel and ADF Soul. Before that, she was vice-president – marketing at direct-to-consumer mattress brand SleepyCat, where she helmed brand, content and performance marketing. Her résumé also includes a stint leading marketing, new product development and CRM for Tata SmartFoodz at Tata Consumer Products, no small proving ground.
Between corporate roles, Haldar also operated as a fractional CMO for early-stage startups, building marketing strategy and operational structures from scratch, a signal that she knows how to move fast with limited resources.
With 18 years straddling FMCG, D2C and the startup world, Haldar now takes the reins at a brand that has long owned the classroom but is clearly hungry for the living room. In a stationery market where the pencil has become a lifestyle statement, Faber-Castell has picked someone who knows exactly how to sell that story.
