MAM
IRS: Hindi, regional magazines see negative growth
MUMBAI: The third quarter IRS (Indian Readership Survey) report has no good news for the Hindi magazines.
As per the report, barring Pratiyogita Darpan, which is at second spot after Saras Salil, all Hindi magazines have seen a fall in readership.
Saras Salil, though maintaining its leadership, has seen a drop in the average issue redership (AIR) to 2.01 million, from 2.05 million in the Q2 survey. Pratiyogita Darpan saw its AIR increasing at 1.91 million from 1.80 million.
Meanwhile, Grehlakshmi fell from fifth to seventh place, whereas other magazines – India Today (Hindi), Meri Saheli and Grih Shobha – saw marginal drop in AIR.
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Amongst the English magazines, India Today is holding on to its numero uno position, with AIR of 1.78 million, slightly up from 1.77 million in previous survey. However, Readers’ Digest and General Knowledge Today, though maintaining second and third position, saw a dip in AIR.
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Meanwhile, the picture is equally bad in the regional language magazines. Malayalam Manorama, though, saw a rise in its readership and jumped two places to be on second spot, after Vanitha (Malayalam). Karmakshetra (Bengali) also improved its position from ninth to seventh position.
The rest – Vanitha, Kumudam, Balarama, Mathrubhumi Arogya Masika, Mathrubhumi Thozhil Vartha and Grihalakshmi (all Malayalam), and Ananda Vikatan and Kungumam (both Tamil) – all lost their share.
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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.
