Brands
Devdutt Padikkal bats for Eatfit
NEW DELHI: Eatfit has signed cricketer Devdutt Padikkal as its brand ambassador. This strategic association with the Royal Challengers Bangalore star will be for four years.
Padikkal is the new cricketing kid on the block – a left-hand batsman, who oozes passion and confidence. He started playing the sport at the age of 11 and slowly climbed up the ranks to carve a niche for himself. Starting from 2014, he has represented Karnataka state in under-16 and under-19 and India in the under-19 tournaments.
EatFit co-founder Ankit Nagori said, “It gives me immense pleasure to welcome Devdutt Padikkal to the Eatfit family. This collaboration will foster and strengthen the brand as well as chart new growth trajectories for Eatfit. Padikkal’s unwavering commitment, youthful exuberance and passion for the game will certainly establish a connect with our target audience. His aura is in perfect line with the brand identity we are trying to carve for Eatfit and we hope that our customers resonate with this collaboration. We are excited to work on some fun campaigns with him.”
Padikkal said, “I am thankful to Eatfit for getting me on board as their brand ambassador. I admire their passion and commitment to transforming the healthy food landscape in India. Their constant efforts to make healthy food cool and delicious at the same time is something that connects with me.”
The partnership between Eatfit and Padikkal will be managed by the latter's management agency, Flipside Sport. The cricketer will represent the brand in all marketing campaigns for the next four years as the company aims to expand to 10 more cities in that timeframe.
Brands
Practo names Cijo George as vice president of artificial intelligence
New vice president of artificial intelligence to mine healthcare data and sharpen care delivery
BENGALURU: India’s healthtech race just picked up speed. Practo has appointed Cijo George as vice president of artificial intelligence, tasking him with wiring AI deep into the company’s sprawling healthcare platform.
George will steer AI strategy and execution, embedding machine intelligence across care navigation, doctor-facing tools and overall platform intelligence. He will work across product, engineering and clinical teams to rewire how patients search for and access care — and how doctors deliver treatment with greater consistency and precision.
He reports directly to Shashank ND, co-founder and chief executive officer.
Shashank ND said years of building healthcare data across patients, providers and treatment outcomes had laid the foundation for more advanced AI applications. Artificial intelligence, he added, can unlock the value of that data to improve patient outcomes and equip doctors with actionable insights. He described George’s experience in building production-grade AI systems as closely aligned with Practo’s long-term vision.
George brings nearly two decades of experience spanning machine learning, AI platforms and product engineering. Most recently at Observe.AI, he led work on large-scale AI systems deployed by global enterprises. Before that, at Belong.co, he drove platform and AI initiatives focused on search and personalisation in the HR technology space. He also worked with the Advanced Technology Group at NetApp, contributing to machine-learning and data-science projects for distributed systems.
An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Science with a master’s degree in high performance computing, George said the chance to apply AI to directly improve patient experience and clinical delivery drew him to the role. Practo’s scale and its extensive longitudinal healthcare data, he added, offer significant room for innovation.
The move comes as digital health platforms double down on artificial intelligence to boost patient engagement, streamline provider workflows and sharpen decision-making. For Practo, the prescription is clear: turn data into diagnosis, and algorithms into advantage.
