Brands
JioStar’s The Collective makes the case for television’s brand power
MUMBAI: JioStar Entertainment has released the latest episode of The Collective, its thought-leadership series that convenes senior voices from advertising and entertainment to debate the forces shaping India’s brand economy.
Moderated by journalist and producer Anuradha Sengupta, the episode brings together four of the country’s most influential creative leaders to examine television’s enduring role in building lasting brands, even as media consumption fragments across platforms.
The discussion features KV Sridhar (Pops), global chief creative officer, Nihilent and Hypercollective; Rahul Mathew, chief creative officer, DDB Mudra Group; PG Aditya, co-founder and chief creative officer, Talented; and Josy Paul, chairman and chief creative officer, BBDO India. Together, they argue that television remains the bedrock of brand-building, combining reach, trust and cultural impact in ways few other media can match.
The panellists positioned television as the gold standard for creating shared national moments, shaping conversations and influencing consumer behaviour through high-attention viewing that is largely free from skips and clutter. By bringing households together, they said, TV delivers emotionally resonant storytelling that strengthens long-term brand equity.
Beyond awareness, the episode also underlined television’s role across the marketing funnel, driving search, consideration, visits and conversions, while anchoring brands in popular culture.
The Collective continues as an ongoing series designed to frame industry debates, challenge assumptions and reimagine the role of advertising in entertainment. JioStar said the platform will keep spotlighting conversations that shape how brands connect with audiences today and in the future.
JioStar Entertainment operates a television network and streaming service that together reach more than 750 million viewers every week, positioning the company as one of the largest media and entertainment players globally.
Brands
Google completes $32 billion Wiz deal to boost AI and cloud security
Wiz joins Google Cloud but keeps multi-cloud support across rival platforms
NEW YORK: Google has completed its $32 billion acquisition of cloud security company Wiz, marking the biggest deal in the tech giant’s history and signalling a major push to strengthen security in the era of artificial intelligence and multi-cloud computing.
The New York-headquartered cybersecurity firm will join Google Cloud while continuing to operate under the Wiz brand. Crucially, the company will maintain support for multiple cloud platforms, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud, reflecting the reality that most large organisations run their systems across several cloud providers.
Google said the acquisition is designed to help organisations build and scale applications more securely as businesses and governments increasingly move critical systems and data to the cloud. At the same time, the rapid adoption of generative AI has introduced new cybersecurity risks, with attackers also using AI to launch faster and more sophisticated attacks.
Wiz has built a reputation for simplifying cloud security. Its platform maps entire cloud environments, identifying vulnerabilities, potential attack paths and misconfigurations before they can be exploited. By connecting insights from code, cloud infrastructure and runtime environments, it allows security and engineering teams to detect and fix risks early in the development cycle.
Bringing Wiz into Google Cloud will create what the company describes as a unified security platform capable of detecting, preventing and responding to threats across cloud and AI environments. The combined offering will also integrate Google’s own security capabilities, including threat intelligence tools, security operations platforms and the cybersecurity expertise of Mandiant.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the move reflects the growing importance of security as more organisations rely on AI and cloud technologies. “Keeping people safe online has always been part of Google’s mission,” he said, adding that the partnership will help organisations innovate with greater confidence.
Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian, said the goal is to make security an enabler rather than a roadblock for businesses building modern applications. He noted that the combined technologies will simplify the complex task of protecting hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
For Wiz, the acquisition opens the door to global scale while keeping its core philosophy intact. Co-founder and CEO Assaf Rappaport said the company remains committed to an open, multi-cloud approach and will continue supporting customers regardless of where their workloads run.
Over the past year, Wiz has expanded its platform to address emerging risks tied to AI applications, including tools that help organisations monitor AI usage, detect AI-specific vulnerabilities and secure AI workloads during runtime.
With Google’s infrastructure, artificial intelligence capabilities and security ecosystem now behind it, Wiz plans to accelerate development of its platform while continuing to serve enterprises, governments and start-ups operating across different cloud environments.
For Google Cloud, the acquisition adds a powerful piece to its security puzzle as competition intensifies among global cloud providers. For customers, it promises a future where building fast in the cloud does not have to come at the expense of staying secure.
