MAM
Havas India launches Gate One consultancy in Bengaluru
BENGALURU: Havas India has launched Gate One, its global business and digital transformation consultancy, signalling that the Indian consulting market is too large—and growing too fast—to ignore. India becomes the fourth market for Gate One after the UK, Ireland and the US, with France lined up next. For Havas, it also marks the sixth global agency launch in the country, underscoring India’s rising weight in its worldwide network.
Gate One India will be led by Karan Ingle, client director, based at Havas’s integrated village in Bengaluru. He will report to Rana Barua, group chief executive of Havas India, South East Asia and North Asia, and to Ben Tye, managing partner, Gate One.
The consultancy will offer expertise in customer experience, marketing transformation, digital, data and AI strategy, as Havas looks to position itself as a full-service player combining creativity, media and consultancy.
The expansion aims to help Indian brands unlock new opportunities and reimagine customer engagement at a time when digital transformation budgets are ballooning.
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.
