MAM
Medlife’s team delivering through lockdown
MUMBAI: With the imposition of complete lockdown by the government to counter the spread of the novel Coronavirus, Medlife will be ensuring the continuous availability of medicines for patients through its 2000-man delivery team across 4000 cities and 20,000 pin codes.
While there have been significant challenges for the delivery teams and logistics since the announcement of lockdown, including indiscriminate lathi-charge on some delivery boys, the Medlife delivery team is committed to ensuring that no patient goes unattended. There is also significant logistics disruption of medicines from manufacturing units to fulfillment centers due to random stoppages of vehicles.
Said Medlife co-founder and CEO Ananth Narayanan, “The indiscriminate use of force and against delivery personnel specifically exempted by the government and the lifeline during the shutdown is of grave concern. Delivery of critical services has to be free of harassment and violence. We request the state governments and concerned authorities to ensure that strict instructions are given to the police to permit delivery personnel with valid documentation to perform their duties in these times of crisis.”
In order to boost the morale of its employees, especially the delivery force, the management is undertaking frequent meetings at fulfillment centers, with all necessary precautions, including social distancing and also through video conferencing. Employees are hailed as heroes, making a huge difference to the nation in this hour of crisis.
Medlife is working closely with its 8200 suppliers and government authorities to ensure uninterrupted movement of drugs and supplies, for both, first and last-mile delivery across the country. Currently, demand for masks and sanitizers are up by 50X, while chronic patients continue to order in excess, post the announcement of a 21-day lockdown.
Narayanan added, “Our mission right now is to enable a hassle-free passage of supplies, for both, first and last-mile deliveries.”
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Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
