MAM
upGrad names Srikanth Iyengar as CEO – workforce development for North America & Europe
Mumbai: Edtech major upGrad announced the appointment of Srikanth Iyengar as the CEO of workforce development, effective September 2022.
Srikanth has over two decades of work experience spanning North America and Europe. In his previous profiles, he led large multinational businesses across diverse industries like tech services and learning/talent upskilling, consistently driving revenue growth and profitability across a portfolio of 2000 global clients across North America, Europe, and APAC regions. In addition, he is a passionate advocate of diversity and inclusion in the workplace and has championed various initiatives around technology-led business transformation, IT solutions, FMCG, and skills & training development for driving strong brand recognition and financial growth at large.
In his current role, Srikanth will build and scale a B2B proposition that upskills experienced technology professionals. With this offering, upGrad is well placed to address a significant and growing technology skills gap in the global marketplace by delivering a world-class proposition. It will also be responsible for leveraging the company’s unparalleled breadth of technology curriculums, significantly large alumni community, and proven expertise in delivering tangible learning outcomes. Srikanth’s efforts will be instrumental in setting up a robust ‘diversity and inclusion’ (DnI) framework to allow businesses to build a future-ready and productive workforce.
upGrad co-founder & MD Mayank Kumar said, “We continue to strengthen our focus on the global enterprise segment in pursuit of predictable, profitable, and sustainable growth. With Srikanth joining our leadership team, we look forward to leveraging his sharp business acumen and multi-cultural intellect to further sharpen our client focus, strengthen our operational excellence and global presence, and also enhance sales leadership for continued growth.”
“The results of the conference board 2022 global CEO survey show that a shortage of skills, especially technology skills, is one of the biggest short and medium-term challenges facing global corporations today,” added Srikanth Iyengar.
“We are confident that upGrad’s workforce development proposition will help our clients address this problem in a scalable and holistic manner. The workforce development approach is critical for businesses to follow as it would not just upskill but also build employees’ resilience to empower organisations and corporates with the tools needed to adapt to the future job markets. Over the last few months, I have developed much respect for upGrad founders and the leadership team as a result of their strategic clarity and relentless, disciplined approach to growth and market leadership. I am really excited to be joining such a high-performing team and to help build a truly special organisation going forward,” he concluded.
With a strong focus on the US, Europe, and select western markets, Srikanth will continue to work from London, United Kingdom. In the most recent development, the global edtech player has closed its sixth key acquisition of CY2022 to further strengthen its enterprise (B2B) business portfolio in India and beyond.
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.
