MAM
CARS24 shifts gears, elevates Manoj Yadav as CBO
MUMBAI: CARS24 is driving into its next growth lap with a familiar hand at the wheel. The autotech major has elevated Manoj Yadav as chief business officer for its India operations, tasking him with steering the company through its next chapter of scale, profitability and innovation.
In his new role, Yadav will lead CARS24’s business strategy and execution across verticals, with a strong focus on sustainable expansion and customer trust.
Yadav’s journey at CARS24 has been one of turning challenges into comeback stories. He took charge of the retail business during one of its toughest phases and led a full-scale rebuild, simplifying operations, rethinking assumptions and restoring accountability. The result was one of the company’s most remarkable turnarounds, bringing retail operations close to breakeven while launching innovations like the 30-day return policy and CARS24 care plus.
Described as a systems thinker with a bias for action, Yadav is known for his clear-eyed leadership and knack for building scalable frameworks. His ability to unite teams around purpose has made him a key pillar in CARS24’s success story.
“Manoj has consistently led with clarity and action,” said CARS24 CEO – India Himanshu Ratnoo. “From turning around retail to building scalable systems, his deep understanding of our operations and customers stands out. His experience will be pivotal as we enter the next phase of growth.”
Reflecting on his new role, Yadav said, “Mobility transforms lives by creating access, opportunity and confidence. ‘Better drives, better lives’ is what inspires us, and I’m excited to carry that purpose forward.”
Before joining CARS24, Yadav held leadership roles at Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance and Idea Cellular, where he focused on marketing, digital alliances, and retail strategy.
With Yadav in the driver’s seat, CARS24’s India business seems all set for a smooth, accelerated ride ahead.
AD Agencies
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.
