Brands
Ednex Global launches to link study abroad choices with careers
Ashish Gupta’s new consultancy focuses on outcomes, ROI, and real career paths
GURGAON: Ashish Gupta, a marketing veteran with over 20 years of experience in education, retail, and consumer marketing, has unveiled EdNex Global, an international education consultancy with a fresh focus on career outcomes.
Unlike traditional counselling, which often revolves around securing admissions, EdNex Global aims to guide students from day one to the long-term impact of their choices. The firm’s outcome-led approach links course selection and study destinations to employability, post-study work options, and return on investment.
Gupta, formerly of IDP Education Ltd, has shaped the firm’s philosophy through years of experience managing student recruitment and partnerships with universities both in India and abroad. He said, “Study abroad decisions carry lasting financial and professional consequences. We start by understanding where a student wants to be in several years and map education choices that realistically support that vision.”
EdNex Global offers a full suite of services covering counselling, admissions, documentation, and visa processes. Its framework evaluates courses and destinations based on ROI, visa likelihood, employability trends, and industry demand, bringing clarity and consistency to the study abroad journey.
Technology supports rather than replaces human guidance. CRM-led lead management and data-backed counsellor allocation enhance responsiveness while keeping advice personalised.
The company will work with universities across Australia, the UK, the US, Canada, New Zealand, parts of Europe, and the Middle East. With plans to expand across select Indian cities, EdNex Global will grow its counselling and documentation teams over the coming year, aiming to make study abroad decisions smarter and more career-focused.
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.
