MAM
U GRO Capital Ltd announced Mr. Navin Puri as an Independent Director
MUMBAI: U GRO Capital, a BSE listed, technology enabled, small business lending company has appointed Mr. Navin Puri, a financial services veteran as an Independent Director on its Board.
Mr. Navin Puri was formerly the country Head of Branch Banking at HDFC Bank and has over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry. He has held several senior positions in various capacities in HDFC Bank and ANZ Grindlays Bank. He has completed his MBA from Texas University and B. Com. From St. Xavier’s College, Calcutta. He is also a member of The Institute of Chartered Accountants, India.
U GRO Capital, which is backed by multiple marquee investors including NewQuest, PAG, ADV Partners and Samena Capital prides itself on its strong corporate governance framework and in being a truly board controlled, management run institution.
Mr. Navin Puri joins other industry luminaries including Satyananda Mishra, the former Chief Information Commissioner of India, NK Maini, the former Deputy Managing Director of SIDBI, Rajeev Agarwal, ex-member of SEBI, Abhijit Sen, the ex-CFO of Citi India, Ranjana Agarwal, a partner at Vaish & Associates and S. Karuppasamy, the former Executive Director of the RBI on U GRO’s majority independent board.
Mr. Shachindra Nath, Chairman and Managing Director, stated “It is with great pleasure that we welcome Mr. Navin Puri to our Board. One of the founding pillars of U GRO is board driven corporate governance, – a core tenet of which is strong Independent Directors. Mr. Puri is a highly respected figure who will not only add great value to us in this aspect, but also through his strategic insights resulting from a long and successful career in the Indian financial sector. We are confident that this will be a fruitful addition that will provide great long-term value to U GRO.”
U GRO’s philosophy is to bring together individuals with deep and non-overlapping expertise on its board and has a board comprising of individuals with experience in working with regulatory bodies like RBI, SEBI, developmental funds like SIDBI, the Indian government and those with significant expertise in the audit and compliance functions. With Mr. Navin Puri, the company has onboarded a seasoned private banker who will help it in its journey to ‘Solve the Unsolved’ – the small business credit availability problem in India.
Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
