MAM
AndBeyond.Media appoints Dharika Merchant as company president
MUMBAI: AndBeyond.Media, announced the appointment of former Affinity executive Dharika Merchant to serve as President of the company, effective today. In her role, Merchant – a specialist in business development, product strategy and operations, will be focused on driving the execution of AndBeyond.Media’s strategic plan for expanding the businesses reach globally, and scale new heights with innovation to deliver operational excellence.
With in-depth industry experience, Dharika has had a long and successful track record overseeing and executing business strategy and expansion. She joins AndBeyond.Media from her long-standing stint at Affinity, where she spearheaded business teams and handled a multitude of product portfolios ranging from SEM, PPC and standard display to real-time bidding (RTB) and programmatic media buying. A digital maven with deep seeded skills in mobile marketing and media buying, she has provided her customer acquisition and relationship management expertise to a large spectrum of clients that include Direct Advertisers, Ad Networks, Affiliate Networks and Publishers, and has successfully helped businesses achieve their ambitions.
“As AndBeyond.Media forays into this new chapter of global expansion, I am confident that Dharika will effectively lead the business and help scale the company’s growth to its fullest potential,” said Karan Gupta, Chief Executive Officer at AndBeyond.Media. “Her strong management background and extensive leadership experience makes her the right person to oversee AndBeyond.Media’s future growth plans. Through the various positions she has held over the years, Dharika has proven to be an accomplished and trusted leader and brings to this position a strong reputation for developing teams and inspiring businesses to go beyond the ordinary. Her wealth of experience will truly serve as an asset as we continue to accelerate growth and attain new milestones.”
Talking about her new role Dharika Merchant, President, AndBeyond.Media said, “I’m thrilled to join AndBeyond.Media during this exciting time. AndBeyond.Media’s bespoke technology and solutions, I believe, are some of the finest innovative offerings in the programmatic advertising space. I look forward to working alongside Karan, Pankil and the company’s talented employees, and dedicated partners around the world to expand the reach of the business, drive greater value and challenge the limits of innovation”
“Dharika has built an impressive record of accomplishments through the years. Her proven ability to deliver results makes her the perfect choice to help execute our strategic ambitions and drive scalable, sustainable growth,” added Pankil Mehta, Chief Business Officer, AndBeyond.Media.
Merchant’s appointment comes closely on the heels of the appointment of Ashley King as VP Publisher Development and the launch of the New York City office – last week. These announcements come at a period of rapid expansion for the company’s business globally.
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Samsung certifies 1,000 Maharashtra students in AI and coding
The South Korean electronics giant marks its first large-scale skilling push in the state, with women making up nearly half the national programme’s enrolment
PUNE: Samsung has put 1,000 students in Maharashtra through a certified training programme in artificial intelligence and coding, the largest such drive the South Korean electronics company has run in the state and a signal that corporate India’s skilling ambitions are moving well beyond the boardroom brochure.
The certifications were awarded under Samsung Innovation Campus (SIC), the company’s flagship corporate social responsibility programme, which launched in India in 2022 with the stated aim of democratising access to future-technology education. The 1,000 graduates were drawn from four institutions: 127 from Savitribai Phule Pune University, 373 from Pimpri Chinchwad University, 250 from D.Y. Patil University’s Ramrao Adik Institute of Technology and 250 from Anjuman-I-Islam’s Kalsekar Technical Campus. All completed training in either AI or coding and programming, the two disciplines Samsung has identified as the critical pillars of the digital economy.
The programme does not stop at technical training. Soft-skills development and career-readiness modules are baked into the curriculum, a deliberate attempt to close the gap between what universities teach and what employers actually want.
“India’s digital growth story will ultimately be shaped by the quality of its talent pipeline,” said Shubham Mukherjee, head of CSR and corporate communications at Samsung Southwest Asia. “As technologies like AI move from the periphery to the core of industries, skilling must evolve from basic training to building real-world capability. This milestone in Maharashtra reflects how industry and academia can come together to create a future-ready workforce that is both globally competitive and locally relevant.”
The Maharashtra drive sits within a rapidly scaling national effort. Samsung Innovation Campus trained 20,000 young people across India in 2025, hitting its stated target for the year. Women account for 48 per cent of national enrolments, a figure the company cites as evidence of its push for an inclusive technology ecosystem. The programme is implemented in partnership with the Electronics Sector Skills Council of India and the Telecom Sector Skill Council.
Samsung, which is marking 30 years in India this year, runs SIC alongside two other initiatives, Samsung Solve for Tomorrow and Samsung DOST, as part of a broader effort to build what it calls a generation of innovators with both the technical depth and the problem-solving mindset to thrive in a fast-moving digital world.
A thousand certified students is a tidy headline. Whether they find jobs that match their new skills is the harder question, and the one that will ultimately determine whether corporate skilling programmes like this one are genuine pipelines or well-photographed gestures.
