MAM
Efficacy Worldwide bolsters leadership with three senior hires
Gurugram: Efficacy Worldwide, the full-service advertising and marketing agency founded in 2021, has added three heavyweights to its top deck as part of an aggressive expansion across India.
Somnath Sarkarr joins as national investment director, bringing two decades of media-buying expertise from Madison, Vivaki, Lodestar UM and Initiative, where he was most recently vice-president investment. He will oversee digital and traditional media portfolios, blending programmatic with scale, and drive partnerships to squeeze more value out of spends.
Prajesh Dutta, with over 20 years at Madison, Wavemaker, m/Six, Maxus and GroupM, has been named national director – strategy and innovation. He will spearhead P&L, sharpen strategy and strengthen teams.
Meanwhile, Raj Choudhary takes charge as business head for the south. He moves from History TV18, where he was regional head, and has stints at Zee Media, Indian Express, Warner Media, Network18, Sony Pictures and Network India.
“We are at a pivotal point in our journey and these three key senior appointments underscore our commitment to strengthening leadership and scaling operations across India,” said co-founder Sapna Sharma.
In three years, the agency has bagged mandates from Kohler, Omega, Rado, Hero Cycles, Suzlon Energy, Foundit, Clear Dekho, UP Tourism and more. Efficacy has built a reputation for marrying creativity with technology, wielding AI-led insights, influencer SaaS tools and funnel optimisation to deliver ROI at speed.
The trio’s combined half-century of experience marks the agency’s latest attempt to turn scale into clout.
Brands
Reserve Bank of India cancels Paytm Payments Bank licence
Central bank cites compliance failures; curbs tighten as wind-up looms
MUMBAI: India’s banking watchdog delivered its sharpest blow yet to Paytm Payments Bank, cancelling its licence and effectively ending its ability to operate as a bank under the law.
The Reserve Bank of India said the entity can no longer conduct banking business under the Banking Regulation Act, citing concerns that its affairs were not being run in the interest of depositors or the public and that it had failed to meet licence conditions.
The move escalates a crackdown that has been building for months. The bank had already been barred from onboarding new customers since March 11, 2022, and later faced restrictions on deposits, credit and wallet top-ups. In January 2024, the central bank ordered it to stop accepting fresh deposits, pointing to persistent non-compliance, including lapses in customer due diligence, use of funds and technology systems.
Operationally, the bank is now on a tight leash. It may process withdrawals of existing deposits and facilitate loan referrals through banking correspondents, but it cannot take fresh deposits.
The central bank said it would apply to the high court to wind up the bank.
Paytm sought to ringfence the fallout. In a regulatory filing, it said the licence cancellation applies to Paytm Payments Bank Limited, a separate entity, and should not be attributed to One 97 Communications. It added that there is no exposure or material business arrangement with the bank and that it operates independently, without Paytm’s board or management involvement.
“As informed earlier, Paytm (One 97 Communications Limited) and its services, which have been operating without interruption, will continue to operate uninterrupted. These include the Paytm app, Paytm UPI, Paytm Gold and all other services offered by its subsidiaries and associated companies,” the company said.
The distinction may reassure users of the app ecosystem, but the regulator’s verdict is unequivocal. After years of warnings, caps and curbs, the payments bank experiment at Paytm is being shut down—decisively, and with little room left to manoeuvre.
