MAM
Madison Media Group elevates Vinay Hegde as chief buying officer
MUMBAI: Madison Media has announced the promotion of Vinay Hegde as chief buying officer. He will report to Amol Dighe, CEO, Madison Media Ultra and head of investments. Madison Media’s buying teams across offices will now report to Hegde. Hegde takes over from Neelkamal Sharma, who has decided to pursue opportunities outside Madison Media.
Hegde has been with Madison Media for three years as senior VP buying and is a part of Madison’s central buying team since 2016, and worked across agency’s clients. Hegde has over 25 years of experience, having worked at Mindshare Fulcrum for over 10 years, where he handled buying for the Unilever business. He has also worked with Disney as director, revenue strategy, in addition to having worked at Starcom, HTA and Percept.
Madison Media & OOH Group CEO Vikram Sakhuja says, “I am delighted to have Vinay head our buying. He brings analytic and strategic strength to our buying function, and is ideally suited to discover new buying and trading models in this highly dynamic media environment. I would also like to thank Neel for his contribution to Madison over the years.”
Commenting on this development, Dighe says, "I am confident that Vinay will enhance and strengthen Madison’s buying and deliver more value to clients through his strong negotiation skills and market Madison Media Group is a part of Madison World which also has specialist units in advertising, business analytics, out-of-home, PR, mobile, retail, sports and entertainment; employing over 1,000 communication professionals across India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Bangladesh. He has an excellent rapport with Media Partners and his understanding of the Indian television environment is second to none. Always goes for a win-win.”
Madison Media has had a great run this awards season having won, Marketing Team of the Year for Asian Paints, at Indian Marketing Awards; Agency of the Year at Digies Digital Awards; Brand of the Year for Viacom 18 at DMA Echo Asia Awards; Mobile Agency of the Year at IDMA Digital Awards; in addition to winning over 150 awards since January 2019.
Brands
Reserve Bank of India cancels Paytm Payments Bank licence
Central bank cites compliance failures; curbs tighten as wind-up looms
MUMBAI: India’s banking watchdog delivered its sharpest blow yet to Paytm Payments Bank, cancelling its licence and effectively ending its ability to operate as a bank under the law.
The Reserve Bank of India said the entity can no longer conduct banking business under the Banking Regulation Act, citing concerns that its affairs were not being run in the interest of depositors or the public and that it had failed to meet licence conditions.
The move escalates a crackdown that has been building for months. The bank had already been barred from onboarding new customers since March 11, 2022, and later faced restrictions on deposits, credit and wallet top-ups. In January 2024, the central bank ordered it to stop accepting fresh deposits, pointing to persistent non-compliance, including lapses in customer due diligence, use of funds and technology systems.
Operationally, the bank is now on a tight leash. It may process withdrawals of existing deposits and facilitate loan referrals through banking correspondents, but it cannot take fresh deposits.
The central bank said it would apply to the high court to wind up the bank.
Paytm sought to ringfence the fallout. In a regulatory filing, it said the licence cancellation applies to Paytm Payments Bank Limited, a separate entity, and should not be attributed to One 97 Communications. It added that there is no exposure or material business arrangement with the bank and that it operates independently, without Paytm’s board or management involvement.
“As informed earlier, Paytm (One 97 Communications Limited) and its services, which have been operating without interruption, will continue to operate uninterrupted. These include the Paytm app, Paytm UPI, Paytm Gold and all other services offered by its subsidiaries and associated companies,” the company said.
The distinction may reassure users of the app ecosystem, but the regulator’s verdict is unequivocal. After years of warnings, caps and curbs, the payments bank experiment at Paytm is being shut down—decisively, and with little room left to manoeuvre.
