iWorld
VOOT Studio collaborates with Indian Cancer Society on World No Tobacco Day
MUMBAI: On this World No Tobacco Day, India’s premium video on demand platform VOOT has partnered with Indian Cancer Society on its World No Tobacco Day 2020. The campaign endeavors to raise awareness about the health hazards of smoking and tobacco usage. Executed by VOOT Studio, the short and high impactful video featuring one of the most popular actors Sunil Grover will urge people to stop smoking.
The film is a mockumentary and offers a satirical take on the contents required to cook up a cigarette. The film will see Sunil Grover with his usual sass and ease making a cigarette with all the lethal ingredients that one would never consume. The film culminates with a strong behavioral change message of giving up tobacco and cigarettes given its toxicity and long terms effects on health.
Akash Banerji, head AVOD business, VOOT, said, “At VOOT Studio we are focused on empowering our partners to effectively deliver on their brand and campaign message effectively through engaging, innovative and relevant brand solutions. Partnering with Indian Cancer Society for this imperative behavioral change initiative is even more special and solves for a critical issue plaguing the world. We are sure that this innovative and sarcastic take on the issue will strike a chord with the audiences and allow the message to be delivered far and wide through the reach of the platform.”
Indian Cancer Society marketing director Shivani Sanghavi says: “While it is common knowledge that smoking is harmful, it is unusual that people at large are ignorant of the use of such chemicals that go into making a cigarette. Indian Cancer Society through the campaign attempts to create an awakening that results in people quitting smoking. We believe that everyone, including the protagonist will rethink their habits with the compelling facts presented in the video.”
The script was written by her to spread awareness and educate the masses to make informed choices.
Tobacco leads to more than seven million deaths every year worldwide and the campaign aims to put an end to the tobacco consumption menace by spreading nationwide awareness around the alarming issue.
iWorld
Akhil Gupta retires as Bharti Enterprises vice chairman after three decades
The man who outsourced Airtel’s network and built Indus Towers leaves behind a telecom industry transformed
NEW DELHI: He was not the most visible face of Bharti. He was, by most accounts, the most consequential one. Akhil Gupta, known within the group simply as AKG, has retired as vice chairman of Bharti Enterprises with effect from March 31st, 2026, closing a chapter that stretched across more than three decades and reshaped Indian telecoms in ways still felt today.
Gupta was there at the beginning, part of the core leadership team that steered Bharti Airtel from a scrappy domestic operator into one of the world’s largest telecom and digital services companies. But it is two decisions in particular that cement his legacy. The first was persuading the industry that a telecom company need not own its own network. His outsourcing partnerships with IBM and Ericsson, considered eccentric at the time, stripped out capital costs and sharpened Airtel’s competitive edge. The model was subsequently copied across the global industry. The second was the creation of Indus Towers, now one of the largest tower companies in the world.
Both initiatives were studied as case material at Harvard Business School, where Gupta himself had studied. A chartered accountant by training and a dealmaker by instinct, he accumulated industry accolades across his career without ever particularly courting the limelight.
Bharti Enterprises, announcing the retirement on LinkedIn, credited Gupta with building the foundation of the group’s success and driving innovation, partnerships and long-term value creation.
The tributes are deserved. Gupta did not just help build Airtel. In many respects, he helped invent the playbook that modern telecoms runs on.
