MAM
MEC India appoints Mukti Kumaran as west head
MUMBAI: MEC India has appointed Mukti Kumaran as its west head. Prior to joining MEC, she was heading the Mumbai branch at IPG Media Brands-BPN. Based out of Mumbai, Kumaran will report to MEC India managing director T Gangadhar.
Gangadhar said, “We are delighted to have Mukti onboard our leadership team. She is a progressive communications professional and brings with her a wealth of experience. I have no doubt she will be a real asset to MEC.”
Kumaran has been a media professional for over 18 years and brings with her a rich experience in strategic planning, buying and new business development. She has worked across markets and has experience on both sides – client and agency. She has earlier worked with Leo Burnett, Initiative Media (LMG), Lodestar and Wipro.
Kumaran added, “I believe the paradigm of media planning and buying is changing very rapidly. As consumers become platform agnostic and increasingly digital, the approach to engaging with them becomes that much more interesting and challenging. My focus will be to ensure that we are pushing our understanding of consumers and evolving smarter and newer ways to engage our brands with them. Looking forward to some exciting work here.”
Digital
Authbridge finds 5.61 per cent discrepancy rate in on-demand hiring
White-collar roles show 4.33 per cent overall as employment history leads at 11.15 per cent in H1 FY26.
MUMBAI: India’s hiring scene is pulling a classic bait-and-switch, candidates promise the world on paper, but the background check reveals the plot twist nobody saw coming. Authbridge, the country’s top trust and authentication tech firm, released its Workforce Fraud Files – H1 FY26 report (covering July–December 2025) around 16–17 February 2026, crunching data from millions of verifications across identity, address, employment history, education, criminal records, and CV validation.
The headline numbers paint a sobering picture: white-collar hires clocked an overall discrepancy rate of 4.33 per cent, while the on-demand ecosystem (gig and flexible roles) fared worse at 5.61 per cent showing that the faster, looser world of app-based work comes with extra red flags.
For white-collar folks, employment verification topped the trouble list at 11.15 per cent, followed by address checks at 7.68 per cent, education at 4.49 per cent, and references at 4.17 per cent. Drug screening (1.87 per cent) and criminal records (0.50 per cent) stayed relatively tame, but still popped up enough to matter.
The gig side showed even sharper vulnerabilities, address discrepancies hit 9.70 per cent, identity (NID) issues 2.53 per cent, and criminal record mismatches 2.23 per cent particularly worrying for roles with direct customer contact or field duties.
Industry breakdowns add colour, address problems plagued Telecom (15.42 per cent), IT (12.02 per cent), Pharma (11.21 per cent), Retail (10.64 per cent), and Banking & BFSI (10.23 per cent). Employment verification headaches were biggest in Retail (16.37 per cent), Telecom (14.32 per cent), Banking & BFSI (13.00 per cent), and Pharma (12.10 per cent). Education slips stood out in Retail (9.16 per cent) and Telecom (7.80 per cent), while CV validation mismatches appeared in IT (12.80 per cent) and Banking & BFSI (2.91 per cent).
Authbridge CEO and founder Ajay Trehan didn’t mince words, “The H1 FY26 Workforce Fraud Files clearly show that hiring-related discrepancies remain a persistent and structural challenge. Despite faster and more digitised hiring workflows, we continue to see gaps in fundamental checks such as employment history, address, and education. These are not minor inconsistencies; they have direct implications for organisational risk, compliance, and trust.”
The report stresses ditching one-and-done checks, start screening pre-offer to avoid nasty surprises post-joining, and layer in periodic reviews like drug tests, court records, and lifestyle assessments for ongoing risk management. Tools like Authbridge’s Authnumber (consent-based digital credentials) and Authlead (deep-dive leadership vetting) get a nod for cutting friction and blind spots.
Bottom line? In a job market racing for speed and scale, skimping on trust verification is like building a house on sand, one solid background check away from watching the whole thing crumble.
