Brands
Malabar unveils 15th Brides of India campaign celebrating culture
Mumbai: Malabar Gold and Diamonds has launched the 15th edition of its flagship brides of India campaign, one of the country’s biggest bridal showcases and a celebration of the diversity, emotion and memory woven into Indian weddings. This year’s chapter brings together 22 brides and 10 well-known celebrities including Alia Bhatt, Kareena Kapoor Khan, NTR, Karthi, Anil Kapoor and Srinidhi Shetty.
Directed by Abhishek Varman with music by Shubhajit Mukherjee, the new brand film captures the many worlds an Indian bride carries with her, from rituals and roots to the jewellery that becomes part of her identity.
For Malabar Gold and Diamonds, the campaign marks a major milestone in its long commitment to bridal craftsmanship. Chairman M. P. Ahammed said the 15th edition continues the brand’s tribute to Indian brides, honouring traditions while recognising personal expression. He added that Malabar’s focus on transparency and quality aims to give families confidence in choosing jewellery that is both meaningful and trustworthy.
The collection spans every corner of the country, from Rajasthani polki craftsmanship and Tamil Nadu’s temple-inspired gold to Kerala’s kasavu-influenced bridal pieces and Bengal’s intricate motifs. Malabar’s design depth means a bride in any city can choose jewellery from any cultural style, whether a Chennai bride seeking regal polki or a Delhi bride embracing South Indian temple work.
The 2025 line features the Divine Collection inspired by heritage and temple art, the gemstone-rich Precia Collection, and a contemporary Diamond Collection that blends modern elegance with traditional motifs. Every piece is crafted by Malabar’s master artisans to honour rituals, culture and the auspicious moments surrounding a wedding.
Celebrities associated with the campaign echoed its emotional appeal. Alia Bhatt said the campaign showcases how brides bring their own personality into tradition, while Kareena Kapoor Khan praised its sincerity in bringing cultural stories together. Anil Kapoor highlighted how the jewellery reflects both celebration and the quiet emotion at the heart of a wedding.
With its latest edition, Malabar Gold and Diamonds reinforces its position as a leading bridal destination, offering gold, diamond, platinum and gemstone designs that reflect India’s cultural richness. The brand invites brides to explore jewellery that speaks to their heritage, their identity and the memories they will carry forward.
Brands
Samsung certifies 1,000 Maharashtra students in AI and coding
The South Korean electronics giant marks its first large-scale skilling push in the state, with women making up nearly half the national programme’s enrolment
PUNE: Samsung has put 1,000 students in Maharashtra through a certified training programme in artificial intelligence and coding, the largest such drive the South Korean electronics company has run in the state and a signal that corporate India’s skilling ambitions are moving well beyond the boardroom brochure.
The certifications were awarded under Samsung Innovation Campus (SIC), the company’s flagship corporate social responsibility programme, which launched in India in 2022 with the stated aim of democratising access to future-technology education. The 1,000 graduates were drawn from four institutions: 127 from Savitribai Phule Pune University, 373 from Pimpri Chinchwad University, 250 from D.Y. Patil University’s Ramrao Adik Institute of Technology and 250 from Anjuman-I-Islam’s Kalsekar Technical Campus. All completed training in either AI or coding and programming, the two disciplines Samsung has identified as the critical pillars of the digital economy.
The programme does not stop at technical training. Soft-skills development and career-readiness modules are baked into the curriculum, a deliberate attempt to close the gap between what universities teach and what employers actually want.
“India’s digital growth story will ultimately be shaped by the quality of its talent pipeline,” said Shubham Mukherjee, head of CSR and corporate communications at Samsung Southwest Asia. “As technologies like AI move from the periphery to the core of industries, skilling must evolve from basic training to building real-world capability. This milestone in Maharashtra reflects how industry and academia can come together to create a future-ready workforce that is both globally competitive and locally relevant.”
The Maharashtra drive sits within a rapidly scaling national effort. Samsung Innovation Campus trained 20,000 young people across India in 2025, hitting its stated target for the year. Women account for 48 per cent of national enrolments, a figure the company cites as evidence of its push for an inclusive technology ecosystem. The programme is implemented in partnership with the Electronics Sector Skills Council of India and the Telecom Sector Skill Council.
Samsung, which is marking 30 years in India this year, runs SIC alongside two other initiatives, Samsung Solve for Tomorrow and Samsung DOST, as part of a broader effort to build what it calls a generation of innovators with both the technical depth and the problem-solving mindset to thrive in a fast-moving digital world.
A thousand certified students is a tidy headline. Whether they find jobs that match their new skills is the harder question, and the one that will ultimately determine whether corporate skilling programmes like this one are genuine pipelines or well-photographed gestures.
