Brands
Mangaldeep’s conversation with God with Bhumika Chawla
MUMBAI: ITC’s leading incense stick brand, Mangaldeep, has launched a unique ‘slice of life’ campaign that depicts everyday conversations with God.
With Bhumika Chawla as the protagonist, the brand delves into moments amidst the daily hustle and bustle of life that essentially provides an opportunity for a serene prayer and an intimate conversation with the almighty. The campaign also highlights the unique positioning of ITC’s Mangaldeep, which through its range of divinely fragranced incense sticks brings about a sense of calm and comfort when the mind is anxious.
The film opens with Bhumika Chawla amidst the daily morning rush at home, handling myriad aspects of a household and yet making time for a short but anxious prayer. The moment she lights the fragranced Mangaldeep incense sticks, a sense of calm prevails for a natural and peaceful conversation with God.
ITC Ltd chief executive for agarbatti and safety matches business Ravi Rayavaram says, “Mangaldeep’s ‘Conversation with God’ campaign reflects the spiritual core of every Indian. Devotion, prayer and invoking good for everyone, is a way of life for many. This simple life truth promoted by Mangaldeep through its recent campaign is rooted in its core brand philosophy of enabling every individual’s pursuit of devotion. Bhumika Chawla personifies the life of every Indian woman and the challenging morning moments in her life.”
R K SWAMY BBDO principal consultant Vivek Shenoy adds, “Unlike in a temple where there is a devotional ambience, in her everyday prayer space, the consumer struggles to connect with god unperturbed. In today’s day and age, prayer is often rushed, distracted and mechanical…even when we sit down to do it, a parallel monologue runs in the head that has nothing to do with connecting with the divine. The right fragrance can transform the mental state, creating the climate for that connection.”
Available across retail outlets in India, ITC Mangaldeep is the second largest agarbatti brand in India and the only agarbatti brand with a large national presence.
The Mangaldeep brand was launched and marketed by ITC’s Matches and Agarbattis Business Division since 2003. Within a decade of its launch, the brand achieved market leadership in the Dhoop category and a strong No.2 position in Agarbatti category with a combined consumer spend of over 750 crores.
Mangaldeep’s vision is to be the most loved enabler and partner in people’s pursuit of devotion and spirituality. In this regard, the brand has extended beyond quality incense products into services such as devotional content and religious tourism through its Mobile app. By enabling the daily pursuit of devotion of over 4 lakh users, it is among the highest rated devotional apps in India.
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.
