Brands
Gorakhpur gets a taste of the Golden Arches with McDonald’s debut
MUMBAI: Burgers, fries and smiles have landed in Gorakhpur and it’s lovin’ it already. McDonald’s has officially fired up its grills in Gorakhpur, marking its much-anticipated entry into the city with a sprawling 113-seater restaurant at Nayak Enclave, Basharatpur. With snazzy interiors, a digital-first experience, and an all-star menu of global favourites and desi delights, the outlet promises to be more than just a pit stop, it’s a flavourful new hangout.
Whether you’re craving a McAloo Tikki post-lecture, catching up over coffee with friends, or indulging in a Maharaja Mac after a shopping spree, the new outlet caters to everyone, students, families, and those simply seeking a satisfying bite.
The restaurant is decked out with self-ordering kiosks, table service, and guest experience leaders, ensuring a slick, queue-free dining experience. And with takeaway and dine-in options available, it’s convenience served with a side of crispy fries.
Announcing the restaurant launch, McDonald’s managing director for India – North and East Rajeev Ranjan said, “It fills us with immense joy to open our doors in Gorakhpur, a city known for its deep-rooted culture, vibrant youth, and welcoming spirit. Through our new restaurant, we wish to be part of the everyday celebrations of residents of Gorakhpur, offering global menu, great tasting delicious food that’s not just quick and convenient, but also pocket friendly. We are hopeful of our restaurant becoming a go-to place for the residents of the city – from coffee breaks to family treats and student hangouts.
But it’s not just about the menu. As part of McDonald’s for Youth programme, the Gorakhpur outlet will also create employment opportunities for local talent, particularly from underprivileged backgrounds, giving the city’s youth a flavour of economic inclusion.
With nearly 245 outlets across North and East India, McDonald’s continues to bring its signature blend of taste, technology and community focus to more cities and in Gorakhpur, it looks like the love story is just beginning.
Brands
IICT partners with Gativedhi to bring studio production tools to students
New MoU lets students explore AI-driven production pipelines for AVGC-XR
MUMBAI: The Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT) has teamed up with Gativedhi Technologies to give students a front-row seat to modern studio production. The collaboration will integrate Gativedhi’s AI-powered production intelligence platform, Shotrack, into academic programmes, letting students experience the workflow systems used by animation, VFX and gaming studios.
Under the MoU, faculty, students and researchers will get hands-on access to Shotrack through beta programmes, pilot deployments and academic evaluations. This will allow them to explore simulated production pipelines, understand asset management, track tasks and monitor schedules, essentially seeing how complex projects come together behind the scenes.
Shotrack is designed to tackle a key industry challenge: when multiple studios work on the same project, differing internal systems often create bottlenecks, slow approvals and complicate version control. The platform provides a unified production environment, enabling smoother collaboration across distributed teams while generating operational insights and predictive analytics to optimise crew allocation, forecast schedule risks and manage costs.
The collaboration also opens doors to Gativedhi’s wider ecosystem. Upcoming tools include StudioTrack, for studio operations management covering budgeting, recruitment and IT infrastructure, and WorkTrack, which measures workflow efficiency and team productivity across industries.
IICT plans to embed these tools into programmes covering animation pipelines, VFX workflows, gaming production and media project management. Students will also benefit from guest lectures, masterclasses, workshops, internships and research projects that connect academic learning with real-world studio practices.
IICT CEO Vishwas Deoskar, said the partnership provides “An environment where production pipeline tools can be explored, tested and refined while students gain insight into how large-scale productions are organised.”
Gativedhi Technologies founder & CEO Senthil Kumar added, “This collaboration introduces students to real-world studio management tools and helps us improve our platform with academic feedback.”
With Shotrack in classrooms, India’s future animators, VFX artists and gaming producers will get a taste of studio life long before they step into one.
