MAM
Kaustubh Radkar becomes Garmin India’s brand ambassador
Mumbai: Garmin India has signed Indian triathlete Kaustubh Radkar as the brand ambassador of its fitness segment. Kaustubh Radkar has also been chosen as one of the Fit India ambassadors, as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Fit India Movement, which was started in 2019. The movement’s goal is to lead the country down a road of fitness and wellness, transforming India into a fit society.
Radkar has also been involved with Garmin India as a coach and will now be the face of Garmin’s fitness segment in India which includes running, cycling and swimming featuring devices such as the Forerunner GPS Smartwatch, Edge GPS bike computer, Rally Series and Tacx series.
Kaustubh Radkar is an Ironman certified coach and is the first and only Indian to complete the Ironman Triathlon on 30 occasions. In 2017 October and May 2022, he was the only Indian to complete the Ironman World Championship in Kona Hawaii and in St. George, Utah. Having studied and worked at the prestigious Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD (USA), he was the fastest Indian at the Comrades Ultra Marathon in 2016 and holds the record for the fastest debut for an Indian at Ultraman Florida. He was also a former Indian national swimming champion from 1995 to 2000. The Ultraman triathlon is a three-day event that includes 10 km of swimming, 423 km of cycling, and 84.4 km of running (for a total of 517.5 km) carried out over three days with a 12-hour cut-off on each day.
Commenting on the announcement, Garmin Southeast Asia and India director Sky Chen said, “We are thrilled to make Kaustubh the face of Garmin fitness segment in India and we feel he truly embodies everything Garmin stands for. Garmin products have always been the first choice of athletes and runners across the world. We are confident that Kaustubh and his achievements will inspire the young generation and future athletes in India to train hard and reach new heights in sports. We look forward to our association with Kaustubh Radkar.”
Talking about becoming the face of Garmin India’s Fitness segment, Kaustabh Radkar stated, “I have been an avid user of Garmin products for the past 14 years and have been involved with Garmin India as a coach since 2018. As an Ironman triathlete, I need to constantly train across multiple disciplines, i.e. running, swimming and cycling, and I’ve always depended upon my Garmin devices for my training and fitness. Garmin products have always been an excellent training partner in my journey, especially when I’m going for a Marathon or Ultramarathon or Ironman. I believe in what Garmin has to offer and that is why I stand with them today.”
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Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
