MAM
Jaskirat Singh Bawa: From fake news fighter to corporate firefighter
NEW DELHI: After nearly two decades of chasing lies across the internet and building teams to debunk them, Jaskirat Singh Bawa has decided that corporates need saving too. He’s just joined Edelman as senior advisor for risk and issues management, trading his role as global head of editorial operations at Logically for the rarefied air of strategic counsel.
It’s a natural progression for someone who’s spent the better part of his career in the trenches of digital warfare. At Logically, Bawa built a 60-strong, 16-language operation spanning 12 countries, generating £2.2m in annual revenue whilst keeping Meta, TikTok, Snap, and Google’s reputations from going completely sideways. Not a bad CV for someone who started as a television correspondent covering the supreme court.
Now he’s tackling a different beast: helping organisations navigate coordinated disinformation campaigns, bot-driven attacks, and AI-powered threats that spread faster than a tweet from a verified account. Deep fakes, synthetic narratives, automated networks—the whole ghastly digital carnival that keeps PR chiefs awake at night. Edelman’s betting that Bawa’s expertise in risk sensing and crisis response will prove rather useful as companies grapple with geopolitics, culture wars, and the occasional coordinated attack by bots with questionable parentage.
The move reunites him with Edelman India managing director of public and government affairs Vasudevan Rangarajan with whom he once shared field reporting duties in their television days. Also in the mix is Pierre Fitter, a law school chum who’s been on a parallel journey from live news to tackling global disinformation. Nothing like a bit of professional nostalgia to sweeten a career pivot.
Bawa’s pedigree is impeccable for the age of online mayhem. He co-founded WebQoof, one of India’s first fact-checking desks at The Quint, back when fake news was still a novelty rather than a daily plague. Before that, he covered elections, corruption scandals, and flash floods for India Today and NewsX, racking up 10,000 km on the road during the 2014 general elections as field producer for Election Express. He’s a US State Department IVLP Fellow, member of the Trust & Safety Professionals Association, and has provided expert commentary to everyone from the BBC to Bellingcat.
At Edelman, he’ll wield “state-of-the-art AI-powered social listening tools” and tap into the firm’s multidisciplinary global team—corporate speak for “we’ve got the tech and the talent to spot trouble before it trends.” Whether that’s enough to tame the wild west of digital disinformation remains to be seen, but if anyone’s qualified to try, it’s someone who’s already fought that war on multiple fronts.
One thing’s certain: in a world where a deep fake can tank a share price before lunch, Bawa’s particular set of skills are rather in demand. And Edelman’s just written the cheque to prove it.
Brands
Jubilant FoodWorks faces Rs 47.5 crore GST demand, plans appeal
Tax authorities flag alleged misclassification of restaurant services
MUMBAI: Jubilant FoodWorks Limited has landed in a tax tussle after receiving a GST demand of Rs 47.5 crore from the office of the additional commissioner of CGST and central excise in Thane, Maharashtra.
The order, issued under the provisions of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, relates to an alleged incorrect classification of certain services under the category of restaurant services. According to the tax authorities, this classification resulted in a short payment of goods and services tax for the period between the financial years 2019-20 and 2021-22.
The demand includes Rs 47.5 crore in GST along with an equal amount as penalty, in addition to applicable interest. The order was received by the company on March 13, 2026.
In a regulatory filing to the BSE Limited and the National Stock Exchange of India Limited, the company said it disagrees with the order and believes its arguments were not adequately considered.
The company is preparing to challenge the decision and plans to file an appeal. It added that once the redressal process is complete, the demand is likely to be dropped.
Despite the sizeable figure attached to the notice, the company said it does not expect any material impact on its financials, operations or other activities.
The disclosure was signed by Suman Hegde, EVP and chief financial officer, who confirmed that the company received the order at 19:06 IST on March 13 and has already initiated steps to contest it.
The development places the quick service restaurant major in the middle of a tax debate that could hinge on how certain restaurant-linked services are classified under GST rules. For now, the company appears ready to take the matter from the tax office to the appeals desk.
