iWorld
Gobble & Dewar’s web series ‘You got Chef’d!’ featuring chef Kelvin Cheung wins a food award for best digital content
MUMBAI: Pocket Aces’ food channel Gobble won Gold at Talent Track 2019 for the Best Digital Content – Food for their web series ‘You Got Chef’d!’ in association with Dewar’s by Bacardi India
The show features some of India’s most popular digital faces: Rannvijay Singha, Mithila Palkar, Shibani Dandekar, Sumeet Vyas and Dhruv Sehgal cooking street-style versions of their favourite dishes against celebrity chef Kelvin Cheung’s gourmet versions. All this over some banter and delicious food, topped with a perfect cocktail pairing, made by Ernest Reid – Dewar’s brand ambassador and celebrated mixologist.
The show, across 5 episodes, amassed ~4,448,289 with an impressive 111:1 like to dislike ratio. As millennials move from celebrating gigantic occasions to celebrating everyday rituals like binge watching a web series or watching a sports match together, Gobble and Dewar’s conceptualized this series to ignite fun conversations through #DoubleIsBetter.
Mr Anshuman Goenka, Marketing Head, Bacardí India said, “Dewar’s is heavily invested in enabling elevated experiences for millennials which are relatable. With ‘You Got Chef’d!’, we are experimenting with a new quirky platform which encourages them to pair gourmet food with whisky cocktails to enjoy simple occasions like bingeing, sports night etc. in a more effective manner. Both the award and the response that we have received will help us in expanding our efforts in this segment.”
Commenting on the award, Sonalika Mehra, Head of Gobble said, “You Got Chef’d is our first-ever food web series and we’re ecstatic to have won a Gold! Our partnership with Dewar's is a perfect fit for the show, both in terms of audience and narrative. It’s an interesting time to be creating content because the digital audience is clearly open and receptive to new and interesting formats.” “We've got lots of interesting things lined up in 2019, so this has kicked off our year in great style,” she adds excitedly.
Talent Track awards recognize India’s digital content achievers each year. In its third edition held at Mumbai on 8th February this year, over 500 industry players including Hotstar, ALT Balaji, Viu, Zee5, Voot participated.
iWorld
Meta plans 8,000 layoffs in new AI-led restructuring wave
First phase from May 20 may cut 10 per cent workforce amid AI pivot.
MUMBAI: At Meta, the future may be artificial but the cuts are very real. The social media giant is reportedly preparing a fresh round of layoffs, with an initial wave expected to impact around 8,000 employees as it doubles down on its artificial intelligence ambitions. According to a Reuters report, the first phase of job cuts is slated to begin on May 20, targeting roughly 10 per cent of Meta’s global workforce. With nearly 79,000 employees on its rolls as of December 31, the move marks one of the company’s most significant workforce reductions in recent years.
And this may only be the beginning. Sources indicate that additional layoffs are being planned for the second half of the year, although the scale and timing remain fluid, likely to be shaped by how Meta’s AI capabilities evolve in the coming months. Earlier reports had suggested that total cuts in 2026 could reach 20 per cent or more of its workforce.
The restructuring comes as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg continues to steer the company towards an AI-first operating model, committing hundreds of billions of dollars to the transition. Internally, this shift is already visible: teams within Reality Labs have been reorganised, engineers have been moved into a newly formed Applied AI unit, and a Meta Small Business division has been created to align with broader structural changes.
The trend is hardly isolated. Across the tech sector, companies are trimming headcount while investing aggressively in automation. Amazon, for instance, has reportedly cut around 30,000 corporate roles nearly 10 per cent of its white-collar workforce citing efficiency gains driven by AI. Data from Layoffs.fyi shows over 73,000 tech employees have already lost jobs this year, compared with 153,000 in all of 2024.
For Meta, the move echoes its earlier “year of efficiency” in 2022–23, when about 21,000 roles were eliminated amid slowing growth and market pressures. This time, however, the backdrop is different. The company is financially stronger, generating over $200 billion in revenue and $60 billion in profit last year, with shares up 3.68 per cent year-to-date though still below last summer’s peak.
That contrast underlines the shift underway. These layoffs are less about survival and more about reinvention. As Meta restructures itself around AI from autonomous coding agents to advanced machine learning systems, the question is no longer whether the company will change, but how many roles will be left unchanged when it does.
