MAM
Pankaj Gupta joins Coinbase from Google Pay
NEW DELHI: In an attempt to build a strong team from scratch, American cryptocurrency exchange company Coinbase has appointed Pankaj Gupta as its vice president – engineering and site lead for India. Before joining Coinbase, Gupta was leading Google Pay Engineering in APAC.
To expand its operations in India, Coinbase is all set to hire hundreds of employees across various roles in the next one or two years.
"For the next phase of my life after Google, I am thrilled to share that I will be joining Coinbase as VP of engineering and site lead for India. I’ll be responsible for leading and building the company’s technology hub in India from scratch. I will be hiring across India," wrote Gupta on his blog.
He added that India has world-class tech expertise and some of the brightest minds in the industry. He also expressed his aim to tap and develop local talent in India.
"The plan is to hire hundreds of employees across all levels in engineering, product management, UX design, research, and program management within the next one to two years to build out a full tech hub in India. Together, we’ll work on some of the most interesting challenges spanning the full modern tech stack — including deep tech areas like blockchains, data engineering, infrastructure, machine learning, and more," he added.
On 25 March, Coinbase had said that the company is planning to open a physical office in Hyderabad. The decision to expand its operations in India comes at a time when the central government is mulling a ban on cryptocurrency.
MAM
Ad veteran Amitabha Lahiri passes away; led MASH Advertising as CEO
Industry remembers seasoned leader who shaped brands across top agencies
NEW DELHI: Amitabha Lahiri, a seasoned name in India’s advertising industry and chief executive officer of MASH Advertising, has passed away, according to media reports.
Lahiri brought with him over three decades of experience across some of the country’s most prominent agencies, carving a reputation for building brands and businesses with equal ease. At MASH Advertising, a unit of Percept Ltd, he played a key role in shaping the agency’s direction and growth since its inception.
He joined the Percept group in 2007 as senior vice president at Hakuhodo Percept and was later elevated to chief operating officer. He eventually went on to lead MASH India as chief executive, steering the agency through its formative years and positioning it as a creative and strategic player in the market.
Before his stint with Percept, Lahiri held leadership roles across leading global networks. He served as vice president at Dentsu Marcom and JWT, and earlier as vice president and branch head at Everest Brand Solutions in Delhi. His career also included significant tenures at McCann Worldgroup, Lowe Lintas and Leo Burnett, where he honed his expertise in account management and brand strategy.
Colleagues and industry peers remember Lahiri as a steady hand in a fast-changing business, someone who combined creative instinct with sharp commercial understanding. His journey from early roles in Mumbai’s advertising scene to leading agencies in Delhi reflects the evolution of India’s ad industry itself.
His passing marks the loss of a veteran who helped shape campaigns, teams and agencies across decades. As the industry continues to evolve, Lahiri’s legacy will endure in the many brands he influenced and the professionals he mentored along the way.
