Brands
Innovartan names Anwar Sheikh head of operations as school push scales
INDIA: Innovartan Technologies has appointed Anwar Sheikh as head of operations, reinforcing its leadership bench as it scales school-integrated, technology-led learning solutions across India’s K–12 education system.
Sheikh brings more than two decades of experience across edtech and school education, with a focus on building outcome-driven learning platforms at scale. At Innovartan, he will oversee end-to-end operations, spanning academic delivery, product execution and platform scalability, as the company deepens partnerships with schools nationwide.
Before joining Innovartan, Sheikh was part of the founding team at Embibe, the Jio-backed edtech firm that raised over $180 million. During its rapid growth phase, he played a central role in shaping academic strategy, product design and operational execution, leading functions across content, learning outcomes and sales operations.
At Embibe, Sheikh helped build AI-led learning platforms serving students and teachers across 36 education boards, localised in 11 Indian languages alongside English. The systems combined text, video, simulations and immersive AR-VR formats, balancing scale with curriculum relevance.
Innovartan Technologies founder and CEO Prashant Sharma, said the appointment comes as operational discipline becomes critical to the company’s next phase of growth. Sheikh said Innovartan’s model addresses a structural gap in school education by delivering competitive readiness from within schools, reducing reliance on external coaching.
Innovartan focuses on embedding diagnostics, personalised learning pathways and exam-readiness tools directly into school systems, aiming to help schools deliver consistent, measurable learning outcomes at scale.
Brands
Dunkin’ Donuts to exit India as Jubilant FoodWorks ends 15-year franchise deal
The quick service restaurant giant is ending a 15-year franchise partnership with the American doughnut chain, even as it renews its Domino’s agreement for another 15 years
NOIDA: Dunkin’ is done in India. Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd, the country’s leading quick service restaurant operator, has decided not to renew its franchise agreement with the American coffee and doughnut chain, and will wind down its Indian stores in a phased manner before December 31, 2026, bringing a 15-year partnership to a quiet, loss-laden close.
The decision, approved by JFL’s board on March 30, 2026, ends a relationship that began with a Multiple Unit Development Franchise Agreement signed on February 24, 2011. JFL will now evaluate and undertake what it described in a regulatory filing as the “rationalisation and/or cessation of certain operations and/or sale, transfer or disposal of assets and/or assignment or transfer of franchise rights,” all in consultation with Dunkin’s brand owners and strictly within the terms of the original agreement.
The numbers tell the story bluntly. In the financial year 2024-25, Dunkin’ India posted a revenue of Rs 37 crore against a loss of Rs 19 crore — a haemorrhage that was always going to test the patience of a parent company recording revenues of Rs 6,104 crore and a profit of Rs 194 crore in the same period. Doughnuts, it turns out, were never going to move the needle.
The contrast with JFL’s handling of its other marquee franchise could hardly be sharper. Even as it walks away from Dunkin’, the company has just doubled down on Domino’s, signing a fresh Master Franchise Agreement on March 31, 2026, granting it exclusive rights to develop and operate Domino’s Pizza stores in India for 15 years, with an option to renew for a further 10.
JFL, incorporated in 1995 and promoted by the Bharatia family, operates a network of more than 3,500 stores across six markets — India, Turkey, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Its portfolio includes Domino’s and Popeyes on the global side, and two home-grown brands: Hong’s Kitchen and COFFY, a café brand in Turkey.
For Dunkin’, India was always a stretch. The brand never quite cracked the cultural code in a market where filter coffee and chai command fierce loyalty and where the doughnut remains, at best, an occasional indulgence rather than a daily habit. Fifteen years, mounting losses and a parent with better things to spend its capital on was always going to be a difficult equation to solve.
The doughnut has had its last day. The pizza, however, is staying.
