MAM
Anil Kapur Joins MoneyGram as Head of Asia Pacific and South Asia
MUMBAI: MoneyGram (NASDAQ: MGI), a global provider of innovative money transfer and payment services, today announced that industry veteran Anil Kapur has joined the company as head of Asia Pacific and South Asia.
“We are happy to welcome Anil to the MoneyGram team,” said Grant Lines, Chief Revenue Officer at MoneyGram. “He is well known throughout the industry for his organizational proficiency and ability to establish third-party partnerships that help drive growth. His leadership will be invaluable as we continue to expand our reach in the Asia Pacific and South Asia markets.”
A widely recognized business leader in India, Kapur brings more than 28 years of experience in financial services across retail banking, remittances and digital payment sectors. He comes from Wirecard, a global Internet technology and financial services provider, where he served as the company’s director for India. He played a pivotal role in driving company revenue by diversifying the business and its product lines.
“It is an honour to join MoneyGram, an organization which is globally recognized and highly trusted with such a strong product portfolio. I accept the challenge to lead the company’s Asia Pacific and South Asia business and implement a strategy that will enable us to grow strongly. It is my personal endeavour to make a positive, meaningful impact that matters to every stakeholder.”
Prior to Wirecard, Kapur worked for Western Union as managing director for India, South Asia and South-East Asia where he was instrumental in setting up business throughout the region. Under his leadership, he built a significant and robust network of agent locations spread across the geography of India, which became the largest distribution portfolio for Western Union globally.
Kapur’s talents have also been sought after as the founder of InTandem Advisors, a remittance consulting and advisory firm where he provided consultancy services for fintech players, payments banks and global organizations. He brings this vast experience to MoneyGram and will provide valuable insight as a member of the regional leadership team.
MAM
ASCI study uncovers how Gen Alpha navigates ads in endless digital feeds
‘What the Sigma?’ ethnographic report maps blurred boundaries between content and commerce for 7–15-year-olds.
MUMBAI: Gen Alpha isn’t scrolling through the internet, they’re living rent-free inside its never-ending dopamine drip, and the ads have already moved in next door. The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) Academy, partnering with Futurebrands Consulting, has published ‘What the Sigma?’, an immersive ethnographic study that maps how Indian children aged 7–15 (Generation Alpha) consume, interpret and live alongside media and commercial messaging in a hyper-digital environment.
The research draws on in-home interviews, sibling and peer conversations, and discussions with parents, teachers, counsellors, psychologists, marketers and kidfluencers across six cities. It examines not only what children watch but how algorithms, content creators, peers and parents shape their relationship with the constant stream of shorts, vlogs, gameplay, memes, sponsored posts and ‘kid-ified’ adult material.
Five core themes emerged:
- Discontinuous Generation, Gen Alpha is not growing up alongside the internet, they are growing up inside it. Cultural references, humour, aesthetics and language sync globally in real time, often leaving adults functionally illiterate in their children’s world. A reference that lands instantly for a 10-year-old in Mumbai or Visakhapatnam feels opaque or disjointed to most parents.
- Authority Vacuum, Parents and teachers frequently lose cultural fluency in digital spaces. The algorithm responsive, inexhaustible and perfectly attuned to preferences becomes the most attentive presence in many children’s daily lives. Rules around screen time feel increasingly difficult to enforce when adults cannot fully see or understand the content landscape.
- Digital as Society, Online and offline no longer exist as separate realms, they form one continuous reality. The phone is not a tool children pick up; it is the primary social environment they inhabit.
- Great Media Mukbang, Content flows as an ambient, boundary-less, multi-sensorial stream. Entertainment, advertising, commerce, gameplay, memes and vlogs merge into one undifferentiated feed. The line between active choice and passive absorption has largely collapsed.
- Blurred Ad Recognition, Children aged 7–12 typically recognise only the most overt advertising formats. Influencer promotions, gaming integrations and vlog sponsorships often register as organic entertainment. Children aged 13–15 show greater ad literacy but remain highly susceptible to narrative-integrated, passion-driven and emotionally resonant brand messaging. Discernment remains low across the board in a non-stop stream.
ASCI CEO and secretary general Manisha Kapoor said, “ASCI Academy’s study is an investigation into the content life of Generation Alpha not to judge them but to understand them. Their cultural reference points seem disjointed from those of earlier generations. Insights on how they perceive advertising is the first step towards building more responsible engagement frameworks, given that they are the youngest media consumers in our country right now.”
Futurebrands Consulting founder and director Santosh Desai added, “While earlier generations have been exposed to digital media, for this generation it is the world they inhabit. This report explores not only what they watch but how they are being shaped by algorithms, content and advertising.”
The study proposes four adaptive, principles-led pathways:
- Universal signposting of commercial intent using design principles that make advertising recognisable even to young audiences.
- Ecosystem-wide responsibility shared among advertisers, platforms, creators, schools and parents.
- Future-ready safeguards built directly into children’s content experiences rather than as optional background settings.
- Formal media and advertising literacy embedded in school curricula to teach age-appropriate understanding of persuasion and commercial intent.
In a feed that never pauses, Gen Alpha isn’t merely watching content, they’re swimming in an ocean where entertainment, commerce and identity swirl together. The real question isn’t whether they can spot an ad; it’s whether the adults building the ocean can agree on where the lifeguards should stand.
