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D. Shivakumar elected new chairman of ASCI
MUMBAI: The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has appointed D. Shivakumar as the new chairman of the board for ASCI.
Shivakumar is the group executive president of corporate strategy at Aditya Birla Group.
As the member of the board of governors for three years, supporting self-regulation, Shivakumar is an accomplished business leader having spent over 19 years in sales, marketing and general management positions across consumer products and the luxury industry.
Sony Pictures Networks India President of network sales and international business Rohit Gupta has been elected as the vice-chairman while Media Brands CEO Shashidhar Sinha has been re-appointed as the honorary treasurer.
Members of the Board of Governors include Harish Bhat (director, Tata Global Beverages.), Subhash Kamath (Managing Partner, BBH Communications India), Sandeep Kohli (executive director and vice president for personal care Hindustan Unilever Ltd), Prof S.K. Palekar (adjunct professor and advisor – Executive Education Institute of Management Technology), .S. Rajan (managing director, Ketchum Sampark), K.V. Sridhar (founder and chief creative officer Hyper Collective Creative Technologies), Abanti Sankaranarayanan (former vice chairperson, CIABC), Girish Agarwal (director, Dainik Bhaskar Group), Madhusudan Gopalan (CEO, Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Health Care), Prasun Basu (president – South Asia Nielsen India), Sivakumar Sundaram (president- revenue Bennett, Coleman & Co), Vikas Agnihotri (director sales, Google India) and Umesh Shrikhande (CEO, Taproot India).
The outgoing chairman of ASCI Abanti Sankaranarayanan said, “2017-18 has been another strong year for ASCI as we have made significant advancements towards building our organizational muscle, external credibility and strong collaborations. Our stringent guidelines, seamless processes and the dedication and hardwork of our Consumer Complaints Council have contributed to restricting the use of misleading advertisements and enhance self regulation. ASCI’s momentous achievements for the year include successful completion of three year-long collaboration with Department of Consumer Affairs, renewal of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Food Safety Standards Authority of India, introduction of “Guidelines for Celebrities in Advertising” and inclusion in AYUSH’s Empowered Committee to control misleading ads of AYUSH drugs. As the Chairman for ASCI for the year 2017-18,I am extremely proud to be a part of this journey and I am confident that under Shivakumar’s Chairmanship ASCI will continue to grow swiftly and steadily.”
The incoming chairman, D. Shivakumar said, “I want to thank Abanti for her stewardship. We live in changing times with respect to information, media and trust of society. ASCI has been built on the foundation of self-regulation and the wisdom of the previous chairmen and the board. It’s my privilege to do the role now”.
The Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) established by ASCI is an independent body (majority of its members drawn from civil society members like consumer activists, lawyers, doctors, educationists), the CCC met 47 times during the year and deliberated on complaints against 2641 advertisements. Complaints against 1177 advertisements were upheld, while for 483 they were not upheld. The significant increase in the number of complaints as compared to 2016-17 numbers (2300) is largely due to ASCI’s Suo Moto Monitoring project viz. National Advertisement Monitoring Services (NAMS). The Independent Review Process (IRP) received a very favourable response and 30 IRPs were conducted during this year.
MAM
Sameer Nair shares heartfelt note as he exits Applause Entertainment
After nine years building the streamer’s content engine, one of India’s best-known TV men is moving on
MUMBAI: Sameer Nair is out. The chief executive of Applause Entertainment, the content studio backed by Kumar Mangalam Birla’s media empire, has announced his departure after nearly nine years at the helm, closing the chapter on one of Indian entertainment’s more quietly consequential careers.
Nair, who built Applause from the ground up in its current avatar, oversaw a slate that spanned Indian originals and international adaptations, threading together a hub-and-spoke business model that partnered with streaming platforms, broadcasters and production houses alike. The results were uneven, as they always are in content, but the ambition was not.
In a post on LinkedIn, Nair was generous to his outgoing patron. He thanked Birla for being an “inspirational boss and a great patron of the arts,” and signed off with a cheerful “Au Revoir” and a promise to remain Applause’s biggest cheerleader. Whether that sentiment survives the next chapter remains to be seen.
No successor has been named. Applause Entertainment did not immediately comment.
Nair built the machine. Now someone else has to run it — and in a streaming market that is simultaneously consolidating and convulsing, that is no small ask.
