MAM
Abbott launches grow right campaign to help parents achieve healthy growth in toddlers
MUMBAI: Parents across the country agree that raising a toddler is no child’s play. Childhood is a period of rapid growth and development and is a critical phase which lays the foundation for markers of a healthy adult life4. Recognizing the continual concerns parents have when it comes to the growth of their children, Abbott has launched Grow Right – a new initiative in India focused on supporting parents and helping children grow to their full potential.
As a part of the Grow Right initiative, Abbott partnered with leading parenting content platform, Momspresso to understand moms’ concerns and establish a guild of experts to create a comprehensive set of guidelines for right growth – the Grow Right Charter. The Grow Right guild is comprised of experts in child care pediatrics, nutrition and behavioural science including noted paediatrician Dr. Samir Dalwai, renowned nutritionists Dr. Eileen Canday and Dr. Dharini Krishnan, and child specialist Dr. Mukesh Sanklecha.
Helping Moms Win at Nutrition and Toddler Growth
The Survey revealed a staggering nine out of 10 toddler moms across India have concerns about raising their child. While more than 60% of moms cited nutritional intake and physical growth as their top concerns, more than 50% moms are also expressing their concerns over mental growth and social skills development of their toddlers.
Addressing parental concerns around toddler growth, the Grow Right Charter defines Right Growth as a combination of physical, cognitive and mental progress that should be observed carefully and holistically during the foundational years of childhood. While science offers solutions and rational routes to growth, the Charter guidelines recognise that a child’s growth journey is an emotional one, and it can be tough for parents.
Grow Right Charter Guidelines
· Right Nutrition guidelines will help parents better manage mealtimes and ensure a complete and balanced diet for their toddlers.
· Right Play addresses the growing concern among parents about unchecked screen-time and inadequate playtime by defining appropriate ways to creatively engage with toddlers.
· Right Nurture guidelines are designed to assist evolving behavioral trends in response to increasingly dynamic influences a toddler faces in today’s digitized world.
· Right Impact guidelines will help toddler parents identify and manage red flags in key growth and development markers.
“Abbott is committed to solving nutrition problems across all age groups”, Vikash Prasad, Managing Director & General Manager at Abbott’s nutrition business in India at today’s unveiling of the Grow Right initiative. “By bringing together this guild of experts, we aim to connect parents and caregivers to a multidisciplinary group who can support them in their goals to provide healthy growth for their children. We recognize that ensuring the health and growth of the next generation is truly a challenge that healthcare professionals, parents and caregivers must come together to address.”
“During early childhood, the brain develops rapidly and is particularly sensitive to the external environment”, said Dr. Dharini Krishnan. It is alarming to see that most Indian children are not meeting the recommended levels of physical activity. Through the charter, our aim is to help parents find effective and creative ways to engage with their toddlers.”
“Problems with feeding may lead to significant negative nutritional, developmental and psychological issues in toddlers”, said Dr. Mukesh Sanklecha. Early recognition and management is the key to addressing this concern. Our core aim is to ease the burden off moms’ shoulder and empower her with the right information.”
Speaking on importance of right nurture, noted paediatrician Dr. Samir Dalwai, added, “Children often tend to face psychological difficulties including behavioral problems
“During their foundational years, children may face behavioural problems, which may be overlooked due to a general lack of awareness on identifying and tackling issues”, said Dr. Samir Dalwai. “If unaddressed, this can have a negative effect on the overall growth and long term feeding habits of children. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work closely with my esteemed colleagues to help ease parents’ anxieties about providing the right nurture and care as their child grows.”
“Parents are often inundated with information on growth and development for their kids and it is important to understand global benchmarks such as WHO’s growth charts to assess children’s growth”, said Lara Dutta who was at the Grow Right launch event today in Mumbai. “I am confident that the Grow Right charter, curated by an expert guild, is a valuable parenting resource and I am glad to be a part of the initiative.”
“Momspresso has always been committed to supporting Indian mothers in their journey as a parent,'' said Vishal Gupta, Co-Founder & CEO of Momspresso ''We are happy to have partnered with Abbott’s nutrition business in India to gain insight into mothers’ challenges which showed the need to address the evolving concerns around the holistic growth of their toddlers.”
MAM
Smytten appoints Shishir Varma as CEO of Pulseai Research
Rebranded AI platform scales with 150 plus clients and 30 million users.
MUMBAI: In a world obsessed with what consumers say, Smytten is betting on what they actually do. The company has appointed Shishir Varma as chief executive officer of Pulseai Research, signalling a sharper push into AI-led, behaviour-driven consumer insights. The move comes as Smytten rebrands its insights vertical from Smytten PulseAI to Pulseai Research, marking a shift away from traditional, project-based research towards a more continuous, intelligence-led model.
Varma brings over 30 years of global experience across APAC markets, including India, China and Japan. Most recently managing director, Insights at Kantar Japan, he has built and scaled consumer insight businesses across geographies, including playing a key role in establishing Millward Brown in India. His mandate now: turn Pulseai into a category-defining platform in a space still dominated by surveys and static reports.
The pitch is straightforward but ambitious. Instead of relying on claimed responses, Pulseai Research taps into observed behaviour leveraging Smytten’s ecosystem of 30 million users built over a decade of product discovery, trials and purchases. The idea is to close the long-standing gap between what consumers claim and how they actually behave.
The numbers suggest early traction. In under 18 months, the platform has onboarded over 150 enterprise clients across sectors, pointing to growing demand for faster, more reliable alternatives to legacy research models.
Under the hood, the platform blends behavioural data with AI and large language model-led analysis to deliver real-time sentiment tracking, scalable qualitative insights, faster quantitative studies and always-on brand intelligence. In practical terms, that means compressing research timelines from weeks to days without sacrificing depth.
The ambition extends beyond FMCG. Pulseai Research is positioning itself as a cross-category intelligence layer, spanning auto, education, gadgets and emerging consumer segments anywhere behaviour-rich data can sharpen decision-making.
For Smytten, the leadership hire is less about optics and more about direction. With Varma at the helm, the company is leaning into a simple but powerful premise: in the age of AI, insight isn’t just about asking better questions, it’s about watching more closely.
