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Arun Nanda 2003 AAAI-Premnarayan Award recipient
MUMBAI: Diwan Arun Nanda, chairman, Rediffusion DYR and co-chairman of Dentsu Young & Rubicarn and Wunderman, Asia Pacific is the recipient of the AAAl-Premnarayen Award for 2003 – an honour given to an individual in India for his outstanding contribution to the advertising industry.
Sam Balsara, president AAAI, presented the award to Nanda at a well-attended ceremony last night at The Oberoi Hotel, Mumbai.
Speaking on the occasion, Nanda talked of how the industry had grown from being worth a mere Rs 50 million in the early-70s to the Rs 100 billion industry it is today. Nanda had a special mention of people and professionals from the client side who had given him the “freedom to innovate at their cost and with their money.”
The Premnarayen Awards were instituted in the 1988 by AAAI and is awarded to individuals with outstanding performance in the advertising industry. Nanda is the 15th recipient of this prestigious award. In the last fourteen years, the award has been conferred on doyens like Gerson da Cunha, Alyque Padamsee, (late) RK Swamy, (late) Ravi Gupta, Subhas Ghosal, amongst others.
The award, presented annually, recognizes the individuals contribution in the following areas:
– Leadership of the industry as an individual
– Contribution towards professionalism in the industry
– Example of personal integrity, values and ethics consistent with the standards expected of an advertising professional
Nanda has the distinction of becoming the first Indian to become co-chairman of Dentsu, Young & Rubicam / Wunderman, Asia Pacific. He manages DYR & Wunderman operations in 33 offices across the Asia Pacific region and has CEOs of 17 countries reporting to him.
Amongst his various assignments with the government of India, Nanda has been on board of Air India as Director in the mid 80’s. He was also as a Member of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centenary Committee, which was a part of the Cabinet secretariat. During this period, he was involved in planning and executing major cultural and other events, both nationally and internationally.
Nanda has also been the president of the AAAI between 1993 and 1995 and later in the year 1999-2000. He was the leader and the key speaker at the 1993 Asian Advertising Congress in Tokyo. In 1998, Nanda was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Advertising Club of Calcutta.
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India’s employability gap persists despite strong hiring intent
Only 1 in 5 institutions achieve 76 to 100 per cent placements within six months of graduation.
MUMBAI: India’s young workforce is ready in numbers, but the real question is whether they are ready for work and senior leaders from industry, academia and policy gathered in Delhi to find practical answers. A closed-door roundtable hosted by Vaishali Nigam Sinha, co-founder of Renew, brought together key voices to discuss actionable solutions for bridging the persistent employability gap. The session highlighted that while job opportunities are expanding, the alignment between education and industry needs remains a critical challenge.
According to Teamlease EdTech’s Career Outlook Report HY1 2026, 73 per cent of employers plan to hire freshers in the first half of 2026, signalling steady recovery in entry-level hiring. However, employers are shifting focus from mere qualifications to demonstrable capability, placing greater value on internships, live projects and proof-of-work.
Teamlease Edtech, founder and CEO Shantanu Rooj emphasised the need for better alignment, “India’s employability challenge is no longer about access alone, but about alignment between education and work. Employers are increasingly relying on demonstrable capability such as internships, projects, and applied learning as indicators of readiness.”
Vaishali Nigam Sinha stressed the importance of execution over intent, “India has both the talent and the opportunity. What is needed now is alignment. We have to move from intent to execution by embedding employability into the system itself.”
Other prominent speakers included Dr Chenraj Roychand, Chancellor of Jain (Deemed-to-be) University, who called for universities to evolve from degree providers to ecosystem enablers, Prof M. Jagadesh Kumar, Chairman of the Board of Governors at IIM Calcutta, who highlighted the need for flexibility and multidisciplinary learning, and Dr T.N. Singh, Director of IIT Patna, who advocated deeper industry engagement through research and experiential learning.
The discussion also drew insights from the book Accelerating Impact. Enabling Dreams – Making India Employable by Shantanu Rooj and co-authors, which features contributions from leaders like Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Dr Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan and Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.
During the event, Teamlease Edtech Foundation launched Project SEED, a national initiative aimed at bridging the education-employability gap for underserved youth. The project focuses on early intervention at the school level to guide students towards informed career choices and work-integrated pathways.
With only 16.67 per cent (1 in 5) of institutions achieving 76–100 per cent placements within six months of graduation, the conversation made one thing clear, India’s demographic dividend will deliver real value only when education and employability walk hand in hand. The gathering served as a timely reminder that the future of India’s workforce depends not just on creating more jobs, but on preparing young people far better to seize them.
