MAM
AAAI announces workshop contest for young creatives
MUMBAI: As a part of its Diamond Jubilee Celebrations, the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) has announced the The AAAI-AdFest Young Lotus Workshop Contest 2006 for Young Creatives.
This contest offers Young Creative People, who are under 30 years of age, with less than five years experience and currently employed in an AAAI member agency, a chance to win a trip and an opportunity to participate in the AdFest in Pattaya, Asia’s premier creative awards function.
This will be an effort from AAAI to encourage young creative talent. The association believes that this initiative will also help young creative people in their member agencies get international exposure and experience.
All young creative people (two members per team, one copywriter and one art director), from all AAAI member agencies will have to create a print ad (25 cms height x 16 CMS width, in English) on eye donation.
“Only one entry per team is allowed. The entries received will be judged by an eminent panel of top creative directors of AAAI member agencies and the decision of the jury would be final and binding,” said AAAI Executive Committee Member Vinod Nair, who is charge of this year’s initiative.
The winning team will be sent, by AAAI, to attend the AdFest Young Lotus Workshop which will be a two days affair from 7 – 9 March 2006.
There, their work produced at the workshop will be judged by an international panel of judges of the AdFest and the winners will be announced during the AdFest event, at the Crystal Lotus Award ceremony, with the recipients receiving a certificate of recognition for their work.
The winning team will be allowed to attend all sessions of the AdFest, which is being held in Pattaya, Thailand from 9 – 11 March 2006.
The last date for receiving entries at the AAAI office is 13 January 2006.
MUMBAI: In India’s fast-moving payments race, Visa has just swiped in a new leader. The company has named Suresh Sethi as its India country head, marking a key leadership shift as it sharpens its focus on digital payments growth in the market. Sethi steps into the role following his recent exit from Protean eGov Technologies, where he served as chief executive officer. He succeeds Sandeep Ghosh, who has moved on after more than four years at Visa to pursue an external opportunity.
The appointment comes at a time when Visa is doubling down on its expansion strategy across India and the wider region, deepening partnerships and accelerating adoption in an increasingly competitive digital payments ecosystem.
Sethi brings with him a broad, cross-market perspective shaped by decades of experience across corporate banking, retail financial services, mobile money and large-scale government technology initiatives. He began his career at Citigroup, where he spent 14 years working across India, Africa, South America and the United States, focusing on transaction banking services within the corporate bank.
His appointment signals a blend of institutional experience and market familiarity qualities that could prove critical as Visa navigates a landscape where fintech innovation, regulatory evolution and consumer adoption are all accelerating at once.
As digital payments in India continue to scale rapidly, the leadership change underscores a simple reality, in a market where every tap, scan and swipe counts, who leads the charge can matter just as much as the technology itself.
