Brands
DMart owner appoints Kalpana Unadkat as chairperson of Avenue Supermarts
Corporate lawyer to take the helm in April as Chandrashekhar Bhave steps down after completing his second term as independent director
MUMBAI: The boardroom baton at Avenue Supermarts, the company behind DMart, is set to change hands next month.
The retailer has appointed Kalpana Unadkat, an independent director on its board, as chairperson of the company with effect from 1 April 2026. The move was approved by the board at its meeting on 14 March.
She will succeed Chandrashekhar Bhave, who will step down as chairman at the close of business on 31 March. Bhave’s second term as an independent director is scheduled to end on 16 May 2026.
Unadkat brings more than 25 years of experience in corporate law, governance and cross-border mergers and acquisitions. A dual-qualified solicitor in India and the United Kingdom, she previously served as senior partner at Khaitan & Co and as co-head of the India practice at London-based international law firm Ashurst. In those roles, she advised global companies on cross-border deals and strategic joint ventures.
On the board, she is known for her focus on corporate governance, regulatory frameworks and board effectiveness. Her experience advising companies during key turning points in their growth has given her a vantage point on long-term strategy, risk oversight and governance discipline.
Unadkat is also widely regarded as a strong advocate for boardroom leadership and governance standards. Over the years, she has worked with boards and senior executives on improving governance practices, mentoring more than 200 directors and senior leaders along the way.
Her appointment signals a shift from regulatory stewardship to governance leadership at the top of Avenue Supermarts’ board, as the company continues to scale its retail footprint across India.
The company said Unadkat is not related to any of the directors on the board.
Brands
Rakesh Menon joins Paytm as avp – lending
Fintech product leader takes on new role after building digital lending, payments and credit products across fintech ecosystem
MUMBAI: Rakesh Menon has joined Paytm as assistant vice president – lending, taking on a new role focused on strengthening the company’s lending and credit products.
Prior to this, Menon worked at Profectus Capital Pvt Ltd as chief manager – payments based financing and digital lending.
At Profectus, he designed and launched digital credit products for merchants with variable cash flows, including overdraft-linked and revenue-share lending models. He led end-to-end LOS–LMS API integrations with payment partners and aggregators, enabling real-time underwriting, disbursal and repayment workflows.
He also worked on funnel optimisation initiatives using journey analytics, improving onboarding, KYC and disbursal conversion by 35 per cent. He developed ecosystem partnerships for transaction-data-based credit assessment and automated settlement systems, and collaborated with credit and data science teams to strengthen risk models and early delinquency detection.
Menon standardised partner onboarding and API frameworks, reducing go-live timelines by 40 per cent and improving digital scalability.
Before Profectus Capital, he worked at PayU as senior manager – presales lead – enterprise business from August 2022 to August 2023. He set up a national presales function for fintech and digital commerce clients, aligning solutions such as EMI, BNPL, BBPS and offer engines to merchant requirements.
He also helped improve conversion rates by around 15 per cent through merchant persona mapping, demo frameworks and structured sales playbooks, working closely with product and go-to-market teams.
From April 2019 to July 2022, Menon served as business unit head – SMB – direct acquisitions at Worldline, where he built the SMB online payments vertical from scratch. The business scaled to Rs 2,500 crore in annual transaction volume, growing at 45 per cent year-on-year.
During this period, he introduced paperless onboarding processes including eKYC and eSign, developed partner dashboards and CRM automation systems, and integrated platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce and Tally to expand merchant adoption.
Across roles, Menon has worked across digital lending, payments and merchant financing, with experience in product development, ecosystem partnerships, API integrations and fintech-led growth strategies.
At Paytm, he will focus on scaling lending products and strengthening digital credit infrastructure within the company’s financial services ecosystem.
His appointment comes as fintech firms continue to expand their lending and embedded finance offerings in a competitive market.
