MAM
Crocs ignites the Holi Spirit: Unveils new campaign
Mumbai: Celebrating the vibrancy of Holi, Crocs, the footwear brand renowned for its unparalleled comfort and style, has marked a significant milestone today by unveiling its thematic campaign for Holi in India. Featuring new brand ambassadors Vedang Raina and Rasha Thadani, the campaign embraces the spirit of #ComeAsYouAre, celebrating individuality and self-expression, combined with the collective jubilation of Holi – a festival that epitomizes hues of togetherness and joy. Crocs, with its iconic Classic Clog and Jibbitz charms, becomes the canvas for this expression, embodying the very spirit of the festival.
Conceptualized and produced by Supari Studios, the campaign film features Vedang and Rasha in a spirited celebration. From friendly excitement to spontaneous dance-offs, the film seamlessly highlights the functionality and style of Crocs as the perfect accessory for a festival like Holi. Amidst a joyous montage of thandai, jalebis, and festive revelry, the video concludes with Crocs adorned in Holi colours, symbolizing the aftermath, as Rasha, Vedang, and their friends relax. Crocs inaugural Indian Holi campaign underlines the continuous brand effort to grow its cultural relevance in the country.
Commenting on the vision behind Crocs’ new campaign, Crocs vice president and general manager, India, Middle East and Africa Sumit Dhingra said, “We are elated to launch our latest thematic campaign amidst the vibrant festivities of Holi. Holi, being deeply cherished by Indians, embodies the values of colour, vibrancy, and togetherness, perfectly aligning with Crocs’ ethos. Our campaign, with Vedang Raina and Rasha Thadani, is an integral part of creating a connection to our consumers in India and we sincerely hope it strikes a chord with those who believe in self-expression and painting their own canvases with joy.”
Rasha Thadani too expressed her excitement around the film, saying, “Holi has always been close to my heart for many reasons and the memories associated with it are always joyful. Being on set for this video has been both a personal and professional joy. Vedang and I had an absolute blast and it felt like I had gone back to my childhood, especially with the Jibbitz, it felt like I was a 5-year-old in candyland. I am elated that the campaign is finally out for audiences to see, and I hope it reaches the hearts and minds.”
Adding on, Vedang Raina said about this bright new venture, “Shooting the campaign was an absolute delight and brought in a strong sense of nostalgia for both Rasha and me. I think what’s so special about it is both Holi and Crocs are harmonious in the values of celebration, togetherness and liveliness. The ideologies go hand in glove with each other and I hope the fun we had on set, translates into happiness for the viewers.”
“This campaign is a celebration of friendship, fun, and festive spirit, highlighting not only the joy of Holi but also the remarkable functionality, durability, and style of Crocs. We’re thrilled to have collaborated with Crocs to unveil a thematic campaign championing self-expression and togetherness, and offering a bold style statement for the festive season” adds Supari Studios VP-content production Mitali Sharma.
Going live on 15 March 2024, the Crocs Holi campaign will be available across social, digital, Retail and e-comm channels.
Crocs India encourages everyone to share their unique Holi moments using #ComeAsYouAre #YourCanvasForExpression
Digital
Google partners with Adani and Airtel to build India’s largest AI data centre
The three-campus complex, built with Adani and Airtel, is India’s largest-ever technology infrastructure investment
Visakhapatnam: Google has broken ground on what it is billing as India’s largest-ever technology infrastructure project: a gigawatt-scale artificial intelligence hub in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, built in partnership with AdaniConneX and Nxtra by Airtel. The ceremony at Tarluvada on 28th April marked the start of construction on a three-campus data centre complex that sits at the heart of a $15 billion investment Google has committed to deploying across India between 2026 and 2030.
The numbers are staggering by any measure. Nearly 1 gigawatt of compute capacity at a single location, three data centre campuses, a fibre-optic expansion under the America-India Connect initiative, and a long-term clean energy strategy designed to feed new renewable supply into the national grid. Google says the project will help India hit its target of 500 gigawatts of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030 while delivering the high-performance, low-latency infrastructure that businesses need to build and scale AI-powered services.
The groundbreaking drew a formidable gathering of political and corporate India. Union minister for information technology Ashwini Vaishnaw, Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and state IT minister Nara Lokesh attended alongside Google Cloud chief executive Thomas Kurian, Adani Group directors Karan Adani and Jeet Adani, and Bharti Enterprises vice chairman Rakesh Mittal.
Vaishnaw framed the project in terms of national ambition. “The India AI hub and three subsea cables landing in Visakhapatnam will become very important infrastructure for the country’s journey forward,” he said, adding his thanks to Google for its “continued trust in India.” Naidu was equally bullish, describing Andhra Pradesh as “India’s premier investment destination” and the Vizag hub as a cornerstone of the state’s technology corridor. “Our vision goes beyond attracting investment,” he said. “We want local talent, startups, and enterprises to become active partners in this technology-driven growth story.”
Kurian called the groundbreaking “a powerful realization of our shared vision with the Indian government, and an inflection point for the country’s AI-native future.” Jeet Adani was characteristically direct: “When energy becomes more affordable and increasingly powered by clean sources, intelligence becomes more accessible, and that is how India will lead the next phase of digital growth.” Gopal Vittal, executive vice chairman of Bharti Airtel, said the full stack of data centres, green power, pan-India fibre and a next-generation cable landing station would enable “large-scale, world-class AI infrastructure in Vizag.”
The project was first announced in October 2025. AdaniConneX and Nxtra by Airtel will lead construction of the data centre buildings and connecting infrastructure, with Google deploying its AI capabilities on top.
Beyond the hardware, Google has announced a substantial package of community programmes. On water, it is partnering with Sponge Collaborative on a watershed management plan linking coastal ecosystem restoration with clean drinking water systems, including reverse osmosis plants and Water ATMs, for local residents. On livelihoods, a tie-up with the Sambhav Foundation will equip more than 1,000 fisherfolk with GPS navigation, weather-forecasting tools, cold-chain management training and UPI-based financial literacy. The Google Udaan India Fund, run through ChangeX, will provide direct grants to local schools and social enterprises for AI skilling labs and digital literacy programmes. The NARI Shakti programme, developed with the Learning Links Foundation, will support more than 10,000 women entrepreneurs from low-income backgrounds in building micro-enterprises. The Skills Trade and Readiness programme will prepare more than 1,000 local workers for construction, welding and facility operations roles, while a parallel tie-up with ICT Academy will train more than 1,200 students and educators in cloud computing and generative AI.
The groundbreaking was accompanied by the Bharat AI Shakti Conclave, a conference organised with the Andhra Pradesh government and Nara Lokesh, bringing together suppliers, industry partners and infrastructure firms to map how Google’s anchor investment can be turned into a broader economic value chain for the region. The conclave’s central theme was building an AI industrial corridor, with a local-first procurement approach and the integration of regional small and medium enterprises into Google’s global operational frameworks.
Every major technology company in the world has been courting India. What sets Vizag apart is the sheer scale of the commitment and the deliberate effort to build an industrial ecosystem around it rather than simply plant servers in a field. Google is not just betting on India’s digital future; it is trying to build the factory floor on which that future gets made. Whether the $15 billion translates into genuine local opportunity, or merely into an impressive data centre humming quietly on the Andhra Pradesh coast, will depend on whether those community programmes prove as durable as the hardware. The groundbreaking, as ever, is the easy part.
