Brands
Franklin Templeton flags off Kanyakumari to Kashmir investor drive
MUMBAI: Franklin Templeton India on Tuesday launched Change the Soch – Kanyakumari to Kashmir Drive, a nationwide investor awareness campaign aimed at boosting financial literacy, with a sharp focus on women. Marking the fund house’s 30 years in India, the 30-day initiative will span more than 4,000 km, covering 21 cities from Kanyakumari to Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir, through a series of on-ground education sessions and community engagements designed to demystify mutual fund investing.
The drive will be led by Franklin Templeton India president Avinash Satwalekar, who will travel across towns and villages, stopping every alternate day to conduct investor workshops for women from diverse backgrounds. The programme will engage participants ranging from farmers and self-help groups to students, teachers, entrepreneurs, salaried professionals and defence personnel, with an emphasis on progressing from savings to long-term investments.
Speaking at the launch, Satwalekar said financial literacy among women remains uneven, particularly in tier 2 and tier 3 regions. He noted that empowering women with financial knowledge can strengthen household resilience, enable community-level growth and support India’s broader push towards inclusive development. The initiative, he added, aligns with the country’s ambition of achieving Viksit Bharat status by 2047 by expanding access to financial tools and confidence at the grassroots.
Brands
Faber-Castell India appoints Sunaina Haldar as director – marketing
With stints at Tata, SleepyCat and ADF Foods under her belt, Haldar is primed to redraw Faber-Castell’s brand story
MUMBAI: Faber-Castell India has poached Sunaina Haldar from ADF Foods, appointing her director – marketing as the German stationery brand looks to muscle up in a category that is rapidly reinventing itself around creativity and self-expression.
Haldar hit the ground running. “My first couple of weeks have been incredibly energising, understanding consumers, visiting markets, engaging with retailers and immersing myself into the world of Faber-Castell Group,” she said.
She arrives with considerable firepower. At ADF Foods, Haldar ran marketing across India and international markets for a portfolio spanning Ashoka, Aeroplane, Camel and ADF Soul. Before that, she was vice-president – marketing at direct-to-consumer mattress brand SleepyCat, where she helmed brand, content and performance marketing. Her résumé also includes a stint leading marketing, new product development and CRM for Tata SmartFoodz at Tata Consumer Products, no small proving ground.
Between corporate roles, Haldar also operated as a fractional CMO for early-stage startups, building marketing strategy and operational structures from scratch, a signal that she knows how to move fast with limited resources.
With 18 years straddling FMCG, D2C and the startup world, Haldar now takes the reins at a brand that has long owned the classroom but is clearly hungry for the living room. In a stationery market where the pencil has become a lifestyle statement, Faber-Castell has picked someone who knows exactly how to sell that story.
