Brands
ITC’s Mangaldeep marks ‘Sixth Sense’ panel with #WorldSightDay Video
Mumbai: Mangaldeep, ITC’s agarbatti brand, has launched a new video on the occasion of World Sight Day, commemorating the contribution of its more than 150 visually impaired ITC Mangaldeep ‘Sixth Sense’ fragrance testers in the creation of unique and superior fragrance varieties of its products.
ITC Mangaldeep has set up the flagship ‘Sixth Sense’ panels in Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Chennai, to provide employment opportunities to visually challenged people by tapping into their keen olfactory abilities to improve it product offerings. Mangaldeep has made them a part of the fragrance evaluation process at the product testing stage, while supporting them with livelihood opportunities as well as empowering them with a sense of dignity and pride for being able to make an impact.
It has recruited 150 plus ‘Sixth Sense’ panellists with assistance from self-help groups and NGOs and are given extensive training after they are onboarded.
The heartwarming video shows a visually impaired individual walking through the by-lanes leading to his house and describing the surroundings around him by inhaling the aroma generated by households and shops selling food items and flowers. He then introduces himself and says that although he does not have the power of vision, he has superior olfactory abilities which has helped in earning a livelihood being an ITC Mangaldeep ‘Sixth Sense’ panellist and leading a dignified life.
The video leaves a lasting impression and makes us realise how lucky are those human beings who can enjoy the world’s surroundings with their eyes. The video also highlights the resilient nature of visually impaired individuals and how they manage to tackle the numerous curveballs thrown by life with a genial smile.
The members of Mangaldeep ‘Sixth Sense’ panel have been able to capture minute variations in fragrance strengths and are bringing in high value-addition in the olfactive matching of fragrances, a crucial process which involves matching a fragrance to a benchmark. This panel has played significant roles in the creation of unique and superior fragrance varieties of Sandal, Rose, Lavender and Marigold.
Brands
Rakesh Menon joins Paytm as avp – lending
Fintech product leader takes on new role after building digital lending, payments and credit products across fintech ecosystem
MUMBAI: Rakesh Menon has joined Paytm as assistant vice president – lending, taking on a new role focused on strengthening the company’s lending and credit products.
Prior to this, Menon worked at Profectus Capital Pvt Ltd as chief manager – payments based financing and digital lending.
At Profectus, he designed and launched digital credit products for merchants with variable cash flows, including overdraft-linked and revenue-share lending models. He led end-to-end LOS–LMS API integrations with payment partners and aggregators, enabling real-time underwriting, disbursal and repayment workflows.
He also worked on funnel optimisation initiatives using journey analytics, improving onboarding, KYC and disbursal conversion by 35 per cent. He developed ecosystem partnerships for transaction-data-based credit assessment and automated settlement systems, and collaborated with credit and data science teams to strengthen risk models and early delinquency detection.
Menon standardised partner onboarding and API frameworks, reducing go-live timelines by 40 per cent and improving digital scalability.
Before Profectus Capital, he worked at PayU as senior manager – presales lead – enterprise business from August 2022 to August 2023. He set up a national presales function for fintech and digital commerce clients, aligning solutions such as EMI, BNPL, BBPS and offer engines to merchant requirements.
He also helped improve conversion rates by around 15 per cent through merchant persona mapping, demo frameworks and structured sales playbooks, working closely with product and go-to-market teams.
From April 2019 to July 2022, Menon served as business unit head – SMB – direct acquisitions at Worldline, where he built the SMB online payments vertical from scratch. The business scaled to Rs 2,500 crore in annual transaction volume, growing at 45 per cent year-on-year.
During this period, he introduced paperless onboarding processes including eKYC and eSign, developed partner dashboards and CRM automation systems, and integrated platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce and Tally to expand merchant adoption.
Across roles, Menon has worked across digital lending, payments and merchant financing, with experience in product development, ecosystem partnerships, API integrations and fintech-led growth strategies.
At Paytm, he will focus on scaling lending products and strengthening digital credit infrastructure within the company’s financial services ecosystem.
His appointment comes as fintech firms continue to expand their lending and embedded finance offerings in a competitive market.
