Brands
Jejurikar of M&M is CEO of the year at glittering Forbes India Leadership Awards 2025
MUMBAI: The Forbes India Leadership Awards 2025 culminated in a grand ceremony at the Jio World Convention Centre, Mumbai, where the country’s top leaders were honoured for their innovative and transformative leadership and contributions to their industries and the nation.
The first awards of the evening celebrated breakthrough innovations and stellar achievements:
* Emerging Innovator Award: BugWorks Research, with Dr Anand Anandkumar, Dr V Balasubramanium and Dr Santanu Datta remarking, “Innovation isn’t just discovery; it’s impact.”
* Outstanding Startup Award: BrowserStack. Recipients Ritesh Arora and Nakul Aggarwal noted, “We power half the world’s airlines, banks, and tech firms.”
* Icons of Excellence: Ajay Singh of SpiceJet and Katrina Kaif of Kay Beauty were honoured, with Singh saying, “We started SpiceJet against all odds,” and Kaif emphasising, “If you enter business, you must have something unique to say.”
Fireside Chat – Katrina Kaif on Business and Branding: Katrina Kaif, in conversation with Naini Thaker of Forbes India, talked about her journey from Bollywood to the boardroom, underscoring the importance of inclusivity and self-expression in branding.
Business & Economy Panel: This segment featured robust discussions on the economic outlook and key business strategies:
* Leaders like KVS Manian, Rajesh Jejurikar, and Madan Sabnavis explored topics ranging from global trade challenges to growth projections and the role of MSMEs in job creation.
* A standout quote from Rajesh Jejurikar: “The world needs India more than India needs the world.”
Final Set of Awards and Closing Highlights: The ceremony recognised outstanding leaders:
* Icons of Excellence: Jay Shah, Chairman of ICC; Shyam Srinivasan, Veteran Banker; and Mohit Joshi of Tech Mahindra were honoured.
* Promising Startup: Presented to Minimalist, received by Rahul Yadav and Mohit Yadav.
* Regional Goliath: Presented to MTR Foods, received by Sunay Bhasin and Sanjay Sharma.
* Grassroots Philanthropists: Rizwan Koita and Rekha Koita of Koita Foundation.
* Climate Warrior: Presented to Indra Water, received by Amrit Om Nayak and Krunal Patel.
* Turnaround Star: Presented to Indian Hotels Co Ltd (IHCL), received by Puneet Chhatwal.
* Next-Gen Entrepreneur: Varun Jaipuria of Varun Beverages.
* Institution Builder: Ashish Dhawan of Central Square Foundation and Ashoka University.
* Entrepreneur of the Year: Supam Maheshwari of FirstCry.
* CEO of the Year: Rajesh Jejurikar of Mahindra & Mahindra.
“These are tricky times, when great leaders and transformational leadership are needed more than ever. These are people who seize the day. Today, we have a hall full of people who seize the day, and we are here to raise a toast to them,” said Suveen Sinha, Editor, Forbes India.
The event concluded with a grand finale that included a celebratory toast and a group photo of all the winners, embodying the spirit of collaborative success and leadership.
Special thanks were extended to partners Federal Bank, KIA, Indiqube, Rajasthan Tourism, and Reliance Industries for their support in making the event a success.
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.
