MAM
AAAI to meet TAM and IBF this week
MUMBAI: With NDTV‘s lawsuit against television ratings provider TAM Media raising concerns among the industry affiliates, the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) and the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) have decided to meet with senior executives of the television ratings agency on 16 August.
Speaking to indiantelevision.com AAAI president and Leo Burnett chairman and CEO of India subcontinent Arvind Sharma said: “In the (current) environment where all has been reported about the NDTV-TAM case, we want to understand directly from TAM what the facts are. If there are genuine reasons to be concerned, and we are not prejudging that, ww will have to discus on what action can be taken.”
Sharma also pointed out that a meeting with the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) is planned this week. “We are also trying to get together with the IBF urgently and it hopefully happen this week to discuss the BARC issue,” he added.
Star India CEO and IBF president Uday Shankar had earlier stated that AAAI and ISA are slowing the progress on BARC. In response, Sharma had said that the two advertising bodies were waiting for the IBF to respond to the draft document (incorporating memorandum and articles of association) sent to the IBF a while back.
The AAAI, ISA and the IBF are stakeholders in the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC). While the IBF holds 60 per cent stake in BARC, AAAI and ISA equally share the remaining 40 per cent.
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.
