MAM
Hero Vired bolsters leadership team with two key appointments
Mumbai: Hero Vired, a homegrown ed-tech company for higher education aspirants and professionals has announced the appointment of Geetika Goel as head of technology and Dr Ankur Sodhi as associate vice president for career services and corporate relations. According to the statement, both leaders will spearhead their respective teams to prepare for the company’s next phase of growth and expansion.
Goel is a seasoned IT professional with over 20 years of experience building large technology-focused organisations in diverse domains. She commands an in-depth understanding of technology with an ability to recruit, mentor, and grow other tech professionals.
“Geetika will report directly to the CEO and serve as a technological and business specialist, making decisions that will affect the company’s present and future operations. She will integrate business objectives and strategy into technology vision and requirements, manage a world-class team of engineers, encourage them, and instill a strong engineering culture inside the firm,” said the company. “In addition, she will investigate, compare, select, and deploy technology solutions to meet current and future industry needs.”
Commenting on her new assignment, Goel said, “I am very excited about working with the leadership teams to create and deliver exceptional outcomes for learners. At the same time, I see a great opportunity to transform Hero Vired into a LearnTech organisation.”
With over 18 years of experience as an educationist, public speaker and strategic planner, Sodhi has played a vital role in improving the systems at various organisations. In his previous role at upGrad as associate director, career services and corporate relations, Sodhi was actively involved in the learners’ journey and ensured their successful transition from students to professionals.
“In this role, Sodhi will be responsible for end-to-end student placement preparation and career counselling,” said the statement.
“Our experts at Hero Vired aim to upskill learners and provide them with better outcomes when they join the workforce or take their careers to the next level,” stated Hero Vired founder and CEO Akshay Munjal. “We are delighted to bring on board Geetika and Dr Ankur to lead two of the most crucial teams for Hero Vired, as we increase our focus on technology and learning outcomes in the coming year.”
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.
