MAM
CarDekho appoints Parthasarathy VS as independent director
Mumbai: Auto-tech company CarDekho Group has appointed Parthasarathy Vankipuram Srinivas as an independent director. The appointment is in line with the company’s objective of strengthening its board and overall corporate governance within the CarDekho Group. The company is gearing up for its IPO (Initial Public Offering) in the next 12-14 months.
A seasoned business leader with 36+ years of experience in globally reputed organisations across a wide range of sectors, Parthasarathy has worked with the Mahindra Group in leadership positions for over two decades and with Xerox for 14 years. He currently serves as the non-executive non-independent vice-chairman of Allcargo Logistics, an Independent Director of recently listed Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), Imperial Auto Industries, IAI Industries, Greencell Mobility, and serves as Director of Rudi Multi Trading Company, Kids Clinic India (Cloudnine) and ECU Worldwide.
CarDekho Group co-founder and CEO Amit Jain said, “We are delighted to have Partha join our board. His diversified rich experience will help us further strengthen corporate governance as we prepare for our IPO and the next phase of growth.”
A chartered accountant from ICAI and ICAEW, UK, and an alumnus of Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program (2011), Parthasarathy is also the chairman nominee on the board of governance at the National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE).
On his new role, Parthasarathy V S said, “CarDekho’s enduring vision, unparalleled track record and leadership position across various technology driven auto solutions have given it a great position in the market across India and abroad. I look forward to contributing in building on this success further.”
Parthasarathy previously held several industry forum positions as a chairman of Sustainable Council of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) – 2021, president – Bombay Chamber of Commerce & Industry (2019-2020), chairman of Association of Finance Profession of India (AFPI) (2015-2020), besides working closely with ministry of finance through CFO Board, and on global advisory boards for CISCO/ SAP.
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Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
