Brands
Colgate & Haryana govt launch smile mission for 57 lakh pupils
Statewide school drive aims to build healthy smiles and habits
NEW DELHI: Brighter smiles are set to light up classrooms across Haryana as Colgate-Palmolive (India) Limited joins hands with the Government of Haryana to take oral health education to 57 lakh school children.
The collaboration expands Colgate’s flagship Bright Smiles, Bright Futures programme, a global initiative that already reaches more than 10 million children annually across India. Now, Haryana’s pupils are next in line for a lesson that promises to last a lifetime.
At its heart, the partnership weaves structured oral health education directly into both public and private schools across the state. The aim is simple yet ambitious: turn brushing from a chore into second nature, and make preventive care part of everyday school life.
“Ensuring the health and well-being of our children is central to our vision for Haryana’s future,” said Haryana chief minister Nayab Singh Saini. “Through this collaboration, we aim to embed preventive oral hygiene practices among students across the state.”
The programme goes well beyond a one-off awareness talk. It includes engaging, age-appropriate sessions led by trained facilitators, lessons on correct twice-daily brushing, timely toothbrush replacement, nutrition guidance and tobacco prevention awareness.
Every participating school will also install a dedicated Oral Health Board, a daily visual reminder that good habits begin with small, consistent steps. Teachers, meanwhile, will undergo training in dental basics so they can reinforce these lessons long after the initial sessions conclude.
To ensure the message travels home, children will receive take-home dental kits and brushing calendars, nudging families to turn bathroom sinks into hubs of healthy routine.
For Colgate-Palmolive India managing director and chief executive officer Prabha Narasimhan, the initiative signals a shift from conversation to commitment. “By embedding Bright Smiles, Bright Futures into Haryana’s educational framework, we are making preventive care a non-negotiable part of a child’s development,” she said.
The scale is striking. Since its inception, the programme has reached over 195 million children in India and more than 2 billion children and families worldwide. Haryana now joins a growing list of states that have partnered with Colgate to put oral health firmly on the school agenda.
“Preventive health education, when delivered consistently and early, creates ripple effects beyond the classroom,” said Colgate-Palmolive India director for ESG and communications Shilpashree Muniswamappa. “Children become ambassadors of healthy habits within their families and communities.”
The kick-off meeting brought together senior state officials and implementation partners, including representatives from the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation and IIT Ropar’s iHub AWaDH, underlining the public-private push behind the programme.
In a state known for its sporting grit and agricultural strength, the newest goal is refreshingly simple: healthier teeth, happier children and habits that hold firm long after the school bell rings.
Brands
Dunkin’ Donuts to exit India as Jubilant FoodWorks ends 15-year franchise deal
The quick service restaurant giant is ending a 15-year franchise partnership with the American doughnut chain, even as it renews its Domino’s agreement for another 15 years
NOIDA: Dunkin’ is done in India. Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd, the country’s leading quick service restaurant operator, has decided not to renew its franchise agreement with the American coffee and doughnut chain, and will wind down its Indian stores in a phased manner before December 31, 2026, bringing a 15-year partnership to a quiet, loss-laden close.
The decision, approved by JFL’s board on March 30, 2026, ends a relationship that began with a Multiple Unit Development Franchise Agreement signed on February 24, 2011. JFL will now evaluate and undertake what it described in a regulatory filing as the “rationalisation and/or cessation of certain operations and/or sale, transfer or disposal of assets and/or assignment or transfer of franchise rights,” all in consultation with Dunkin’s brand owners and strictly within the terms of the original agreement.
The numbers tell the story bluntly. In the financial year 2024-25, Dunkin’ India posted a revenue of Rs 37 crore against a loss of Rs 19 crore — a haemorrhage that was always going to test the patience of a parent company recording revenues of Rs 6,104 crore and a profit of Rs 194 crore in the same period. Doughnuts, it turns out, were never going to move the needle.
The contrast with JFL’s handling of its other marquee franchise could hardly be sharper. Even as it walks away from Dunkin’, the company has just doubled down on Domino’s, signing a fresh Master Franchise Agreement on March 31, 2026, granting it exclusive rights to develop and operate Domino’s Pizza stores in India for 15 years, with an option to renew for a further 10.
JFL, incorporated in 1995 and promoted by the Bharatia family, operates a network of more than 3,500 stores across six markets — India, Turkey, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Its portfolio includes Domino’s and Popeyes on the global side, and two home-grown brands: Hong’s Kitchen and COFFY, a café brand in Turkey.
For Dunkin’, India was always a stretch. The brand never quite cracked the cultural code in a market where filter coffee and chai command fierce loyalty and where the doughnut remains, at best, an occasional indulgence rather than a daily habit. Fifteen years, mounting losses and a parent with better things to spend its capital on was always going to be a difficult equation to solve.
The doughnut has had its last day. The pizza, however, is staying.
