MAM
IndusInd Media CEO Deepak Varma leaves
MUMBAI: Barely two months after being recruited as the chief executive officer of Hinduja TMT subsidiary IndusInd Media & Communications, Deepak Varma has quit the company.
Srinivas Palakodeti, who was chief financial officer, has been elevated as the company’s chief operating officer. HTMT is in the process of de-merging its information technology and media businesses.
“The cable TV industry operates in a way that is not in sync with the understanding that I have had with my past job experiences,” Varma tells Indiantelevision.com. Varma was earlier serving as chief operating officer of BPL Mobile Communications Mumbai. After quitting BPL, Varma was working with a telecom company abroad.
“The cable TV industry could not accept Varma’s style of operations. A group of IndusInd’s distributors protested against him,” a source in the company said.
Varma had taken over from General Anand who retired on health grounds. But soon after being in charge, he fell out with the distributors and found it difficult to understand the complexities of the cable industry.
HTMT is in the process of constituting two debt-free listed companies with mirror shareholding. While information technology and telecom businesses will form part of the technology company, media, including film content and cable TV distribution and broadband, will be part of the new entity.
MAM
Time brings TIME100 Next franchise to India with Reliance
List to spotlight 100 emerging leaders, gala set for December 2026 in Mumbai.
MUMBAI: It’s about time India’s next wave got a global spotlight and now, it’s on the list. New York-headquartered Time is expanding its TIME100 Next franchise to India, partnering with Reliance Industries Limited to launch TIME100 Next India, its first international extension of the rising leaders platform. The announcement was made at the Time100 Gala in New York by Jessica Sibley and Nita Mukesh Ambani, signalling a strategic push to tap into India’s growing influence across sectors.
The India edition will recognise 100 emerging leaders from the country and the global Indian diaspora, spanning business, science, sports, arts and social impact. The list will be curated by Time’s editorial team and published online, continuing the franchise’s focus on identifying individuals shaping the future.
The initiative will culminate in a gala event scheduled for December 2026 at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre, anchoring the platform within India’s cultural and business ecosystem.
TIME’s broader Time100 franchise has steadily expanded its global footprint since 2021 through events and impact-led initiatives. Executives noted that India’s growing pool of influential voices and innovators made it a natural next step for the platform’s international ambitions.
For Reliance, the partnership aligns with its broader push to support emerging talent and ideas on a global stage. For Time, it marks a timely bet on India not just as a market, but as a talent engine shaping the next chapter of global leadership.
