MAM
Happy New Year for Star Plus as it clocks 396 GRPs
MUMBAI: Consolidating its numero uno position, Star Plus has added 28 GRPS (gross rating points) to its previous week‘s tally to start 2011 with 396 GRPs.
The channel got support from the newly created joint venture awards property, Big Star Entertainment Awards, which clocked 5.5 TVR from its telecast on 31 December. Incidentally, this is the highest rating an event has got on television over the last 28 weeks (since Star Parivaar awards).
The Awards event reached out to 31.4 million viewers over 2.5 hours, contributing 26 GRPs to the channel during the week.
Star Plus also got a boost in the weekday 7-8 pm band with Saathiya getting a 6.1 TVR (from 5.8 TVR in previous week) and Sasural Genda Phool clocking 5.5 TVR (from 5.1 TVR), according to Tam data (C&S, HSM) for the week ended 1 January.
Meanwhile, Colors and Zee TV retained their second and third positions with 283 and 224 GRPs respectively. Both the channels lost seven GRPs compared to the previous week.
For Colors, its newly launched fiction in 6.30 pm band – Maati Ki Banno – averaged 1.5 TVR with the launch episode delivering a 1.6 TVR, while the repeat of the Salman Khan starrer Dabangg on Sunday rated 4.5.
For Zee TV, the popular dance reality show DID Doubles launched well, delivering a 4 TVR for the week. The launch episode got a TVR of 4.6, reached out to 25.million viewers and had a timespent of 25.1 minutes, according to Tam data.
Among the other Hindi GECs, Sony Entertainment and Sab remained unchanged with 179 GRPs and 146 GRPs for the week ended 1 January. Imagine TV added three GRPs to end the week with 86 GRPs while Star One and Sahara One were hovering at 38 GRPs and 31 GRPs respectively.
MUMBAI: In India’s fast-moving payments race, Visa has just swiped in a new leader. The company has named Suresh Sethi as its India country head, marking a key leadership shift as it sharpens its focus on digital payments growth in the market. Sethi steps into the role following his recent exit from Protean eGov Technologies, where he served as chief executive officer. He succeeds Sandeep Ghosh, who has moved on after more than four years at Visa to pursue an external opportunity.
The appointment comes at a time when Visa is doubling down on its expansion strategy across India and the wider region, deepening partnerships and accelerating adoption in an increasingly competitive digital payments ecosystem.
Sethi brings with him a broad, cross-market perspective shaped by decades of experience across corporate banking, retail financial services, mobile money and large-scale government technology initiatives. He began his career at Citigroup, where he spent 14 years working across India, Africa, South America and the United States, focusing on transaction banking services within the corporate bank.
His appointment signals a blend of institutional experience and market familiarity qualities that could prove critical as Visa navigates a landscape where fintech innovation, regulatory evolution and consumer adoption are all accelerating at once.
As digital payments in India continue to scale rapidly, the leadership change underscores a simple reality, in a market where every tap, scan and swipe counts, who leads the charge can matter just as much as the technology itself.
