MAM
Marathon runner trades super-app for banking sprint
MUMBAI: Sheran Mendiratta Mehra has laced up her running shoes for a new race. The marketing veteran who helped build Tata Digital’s super-app to 100m-plus users has joined IndusInd Bank as chief marketing officer this September, leaving behind a six-year stint that transformed India’s digital commerce landscape.
At Tata Digital, Mehra wore multiple hats with characteristic stamina. As chief business officer since July 2024 and chief brand officer cum business head for hotels since April 2022, she orchestrated the brand strategy for one of India’s most ambitious digital ventures. Before that, she spent nearly three years as chief brand officer, shaping product design and brand identity from the ground up.
Her CV reveals her wide exposure to financial services and hospitality marketing. Six years at DBS Bank as executive director for group strategic marketing and communications, where she also championed social entrepreneurship through the bank’s corporate social responsibility arm. Stints at Dhanlaxmi Bank, Barclays and HSBC showcased her knack for turnarounds—she pushed top-of-mind recall to 52 per cent during Barclays’ India launch and co-led the country’s first mobile banking service, Hello Money.
Earlier pit stops included heading resort marketing at Mahindra Holidays, where she boosted wallet share by 25-30 per cent, and agency-side roles at Ogilvy & Mather and Lintas, where she cut her teeth relaunching Huggies with sales surging over 15 per cent.
The 25-year marketing strategist brings more than spreadsheets and campaigns to IndusInd. A distance runner for over a decade, Mehra champions the notion that peak performance in the boardroom and on the trail aren’t mutually exclusive. She’s vocal about mentoring female leaders in tech whilst maintaining her daily running practice—a fitting metaphor for someone who sees finish lines as starting points.
IndusInd just hired someone who runs towards challenges, not away from them.
Brands
Thomas Cook India, SOTC and Booking.com team up for smarter corporate stays
Global hotel choices meet Indian corporate controls for seamless business travel
MUMBAI: Business travel just got a major upgrade. Thomas Cook (India) and its group company SOTC Travel have joined forces with Booking.com to offer Indian corporates world-class accommodation options with a side of convenience.
The collaboration brings Booking.com’s vast global inventory, more than 31 million listings across 220 countries, straight into Thomas Cook and SOTC’s corporate booking platforms. From luxury hotels and resorts to homes and apartments, business travellers now have an unprecedented range of choices, all while staying within company travel policies.
Thomas Cook and SOTC president & group head of global business travel Indiver Rastogi said, “Today’s business travellers want more choice, flexibility and transparency. By linking Booking.com’s extensive inventory with our managed corporate tools, we’re delivering exactly that: policy control, price clarity and service support that businesses can trust.”
The offering is designed with the Indian corporate traveller in mind. Key features include transparent pricing with GST-compliant invoices, curated hotel options for SMEs to large enterprises, coverage across 2,500 plus Indian cities, verified traveller reviews, essential business amenities, and integrated policy control for approvals, budgets and credit limits.
Booking.com VP partnerships Mark van der Linden added, “Corporate travellers in India want the same seamless experience they enjoy in personal trips, with the right corporate guardrails. This partnership makes our global accommodation inventory enterprise-ready, combining choice, flexibility and localised support.”
With real-time booking access on desktop and mobile, enterprise-specific rates, loyalty benefits, and future integrations into Thomas Cook’s TravelOne platform, the partnership promises to make corporate travel smoother, safer and smarter than ever.
