Brands
Shilpa Dureja Puri elevated as director marketing – new computing & wearables at Samsung Electronics India
GURGAON: Shilpa Dureja Puri has been elevated as director marketing, new computing and wearables at Samsung Electronics India, signalling the company’s confidence in a leader steeped in digital, premium and ecosystem storytelling.
She now leads marketing for tablets, laptops, watches, buds, rings and accessories, shaping the next phase of connected consumer experiences and driving growth in categories that straddle work, play and everyday digital life.
Within Samsung, Dureja Puri has climbed steadily. She has handled director marketing roles across luxury, flagship and ecosystem portfolios, served as gm marketing for luxury and flagship mobiles, and earlier as general manager digital from Gurugram, sharpening the brand’s premium and online muscle.
Her grounding in technology marketing was forged at Microsoft, where she held director roles in digital and experiential marketing and earlier led digital marketing across content, search, analytics and demand generation. She worked on governance, privacy and large-scale digital transformation, and drove partner and education marketing programmes across India.
Before that came agency and global exposure. As vice president at Publicis Modem, part of Publicis Groupe, she ran India operations, managed P&L and built digital strategy for clients including HP and Beam Global. She also served as marketing director, India at Dada S.p.A, working on web and mobile community services across markets.
Her early career blended media, marketing and academia. She taught as senior guest faculty at National Institute of Fashion Technology, University of Delhi and Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, covering new media, journalism and communication skills.
In media and publishing, she worked with HT Media Ltd on the relaunch of Hindustan Times’ digital properties and brand activations, including a luxury conference at Taj Mahal Palace & Towers. At Times Internet Limited, she handled editorial and product roles across lifestyle and city guides. As a freelance journalist, she wrote for The Times of India, The Asian Age, The Statesman and Femina, among others.
Recognition has followed. She has been named among the 100 Smartest Digital Marketing Leaders by World Digital Marketing Congress and CMO Asia. An alumna of International Management Institute New Delhi, she also completed the Modern Marketing programme at Kellogg School of Management, finishing with distinction.
For Samsung, the logic is clear. As screens, wearables and services converge, marketing must stitch them into one story. Dureja Puri’s brief is to make that story sell. The race now is for mindshare, wallet share and a place in the consumer’s daily routine. Samsung has picked its narrator.
Brands
Trump announces $300bn Texas oil refinery with Reliance, calls it the biggest in US history
First new US refinery in 50 years planned at Brownsville port with Reliance
WASHINGTON: The United States may soon see the first brand-new oil refinery built on its soil in half a century.
Donald Trump announced a proposed $300 billion refinery project in Texas, calling it a landmark moment for American energy production and jobs.
Posting on Truth Social on 10 March, Trump said the facility would be built at the Port of Brownsville and developed by a company called America First Refining, with major investment from India’s Reliance Industries.
The announcement frames the project as a centrepiece of the administration’s push for “energy dominance”, with Trump claiming it would deliver thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic activity to South Texas.
If realised, the plant would mark the first all-new major refinery constructed in the United States since the 1970s. In recent decades, oil companies have largely chosen to expand existing facilities rather than build new ones, citing high costs, regulatory hurdles and environmental scrutiny.
Trump described the proposed investment as the “biggest in US history”, positioning it as proof that policy changes such as streamlined permits and lower taxes are drawing large-scale energy investments back into the country.
The refinery is planned for the Port of Brownsville, a strategic Gulf Coast location that provides easy access to shipping routes and export markets.
A key partner in the project is Reliance Industries, controlled by billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani. The company already runs the world’s largest refining complex in Jamnagar, India, making it one of the most experienced operators in large-scale petroleum processing.
The Texas venture would mark a significant step for the group into America’s domestic refining sector, potentially strengthening industrial ties between the US and India.
The proposed refinery is being promoted as a next-generation facility capable of processing American shale oil while maintaining high environmental standards. Trump said it would be “the cleanest refinery in the world”, although the specific technologies behind that claim have not yet been detailed.
Industry observers also note that the $300 billion figure is unusually large for a refinery project, and analysts are waiting for more clarity on whether the number reflects total construction costs, long-term infrastructure investment, or broader economic impact estimates.
As of 11 March, Reliance Industries had not publicly confirmed the investment size or the structure of its involvement.
For now, the announcement has sparked equal parts excitement and curiosity in energy markets. If the plan moves from promise to pouring concrete, the refinery could reshape the Gulf Coast energy landscape, and reopen a chapter in American refining that has been quiet for nearly fifty years.
