Brands
Explurger Indian social media platform takes centre stage at MahaKumbh 2025
MUMBAI: Homegrown social media platform Explurger has emerged as the digital frontrunner at Digital MahaKumbh 2025, establishing itself as the sole social network with a significant physical presence at the world’s largest religious gathering.
The platform, co-founded by Bollywood actor Sonu Sood in 2022, has set up a 2,000-square-foot creators’ lounge in partnership with AajTak, featuring podcast studios, an interactive stage, and a Formula One simulation zone sponsored by Red Bull. Notable performers including singers Shaan and Hariharan, alongside filmmaker Kabir Khan, have made appearances at the venue.
Beyond its digital offerings, Explurger’s on-ground team has proved instrumental during emergencies, helping coordinate safety measures during stampedes and fires whilst amplifying urgent alerts across its network.
Said founder & CEO Jitin Bhatia: “As a made-in-India app built for travellers and explorers, we’re reshaping how the world connects through culture and meaningful content.”
The MahaKumbh festival has drawn an estimated 450 million visitors, including 30 million international tourists. While global social media platforms have maintained distance from the event, viewing it primarily through a religious lens, Explurger has embraced it as a cultural phenomenon.
The platform, which boasts 12 million users worldwide, offers unique features including an automatic travelogue and personalised bucket lists.
Its presence at MahaKumbh 2025 forms part of its campaign “One Event. One Billion Stories. One Lounge.”
Brands
UltraTech Cement appoints Jayant Dua as managing director
Dua will succeed K. C. Jhanwar after his term ends in December 2026
MUMBAI: UltraTech Cement, the flagship cement arm of the Aditya Birla Group, has elevated Jayant Dua as managing director, effective 1 April, 2026.
The company’s board also approved his appointment as additional director, managing director and key managerial personnel, effective 1 January, 2027, following the completion of the current managing director K C Jhanwar’s term on 31 December, 2026, according to a regulatory filing.
Dua will serve as managing director for a four-year term from 1 January, 2027 to 31 December, 2030.
A veteran executive with more than 37 years of professional experience, Dua joined the Aditya Birla Group’s cement business in 1996 and spent nearly a decade in various functional and leadership roles.
Over the past two decades, he has held several profit-and-loss and chief executive responsibilities across multiple group businesses, including insulators, insurance, Century Cement and the chlor-alkali segment. In 2023, he was elevated to lead the group’s renewables and textiles businesses.
Within the group, Dua has received several internal honours, including the chairman’s individual award for exceptional contribution in 2002, the outstanding leader award in 2009 and the leader of leaders recognition in 2022.
He holds an engineering degree from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, an MBA from International Management Institute and has completed the advanced management programme at Harvard Business School.
