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Bharat Gupta assumes the presidency at INMA’s South Asian Division from Jagran New Media
Mumbai: Jagran New Media’s CEO, Bharat Gupta, has been elected as the regional president of the South Asian Division of the International News Media Association (INMA), succeeding the earlier president, Praveen Someshwar, MD & CEO at HT Media Ltd. Jagran New Media is the digital arm of Jagran Prakashan Ltd, which operates businesses in Print, Radio, Outdoor & Digital. This leadership transition was part of the recent election conducted by INMA during its annual business meeting, where new officers and regional directors were appointed for the International board. The team also extends its gratitude to Earl J. Wilkinson, Executive Director and CEO of the International News Media Association (INMA), for his exemplary leadership.
Other regional presidents on the INMA International Board include Petteri Putkiranta, President, News & Featyre, Sanoma Media Finaland, Helsinki, Finland; Troy Niday, Chief Operations Officer Sonoma Media Investments – The Press Democrat, Santa Rosa, California; and Pablo Deluca, Director de Asuntos Institucionales Infobae Buenos Aires, CABA, Argentina (Latin American Division President).
Ecstatic about the appointment, Jagran New Media CEO Bharat Gupta said, “I am deeply honoured to take on the role of South Asia Division President at the International News Media Association (INMA) and contribute to a global dialogue on the future of news media. My primary focus will be driving scale, impact, and sustainability for digital news media companies, and central to my vision is the creation of a collaborative platform where we can all ideate, collaborate, and innovate. This approach is especially crucial in the context of the ongoing disruption caused by AI and ML technology stacks. There will be a special emphasis on culture building within our organisations, particularly through fostering Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity, to ensure a transformative impact across the media landscape. By integrating these elements, I aim to contribute meaningfully to INMA’s mission and support the evolution of the Indian media sector within the global framework.”
With a wealth of experience and expertise in the media sector, Mr. Bharat Gupta will be responsible for laying down the futuristic vision of the South Asia Division, overseeing all activities and championing INMA’s core values of sustainable journalism, success, innovation, and continuous learning. Before his elevation to president, he served as an integral part of INMA South Asian Division as its Vice President, which showcased his firm dedication to INMA’s
mission, focusing on fostering growth, revenue, and brand development within the dynamic media universe.
With a global Board of Directors overseeing the association’s activities, INMA continues to be at the forefront of providing professional training and development opportunities for its 20,000+ members across 94 countries. It leads the news industry with initiatives to understand better digital subscriptions, intelligent data, products, advertising, and the emerging relationship with Big Tech platforms.
Along with serving as the president of the INMA South Asia Division (International News & Media Association), he is also a governing council member and co-chair at the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI); a founding member of the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA); Executive president of the Misinformation Combat Alliance; a board member of the International Fact Check Network (IFCN); an Advisory Board Member of FT Strategies, London; and a member of the Google Global News Advisory Group and YouTube Global News Advisory Group; and the founding member & president of the Misinformation Combat Alliance (MCA), a cross-industry collaborative effort to combat and limit the spread of misinformation.
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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.
