MAM
MICA and WebEngage introduces new course ‘Tech Tonic’
Mumbai: With brands shifting their focus to retaining existing customers instead of acquiring new ones, retention marketing and consumer tech has climbed up the priority list for marketers and media managers. Taking the digital leap, MICA Ahmedabad has introduced a course titled ‘Tech Tonic – Consumer Tech and Campaign Management’ that will equip students with key principles of Consumer Technology, Retention Marketing, and Campaign Management.
To design and deliver this course, MICA’s Media Entertainment and Sports Management Specialisation (MESM) Area has partnered with WebEngage, a leading MarTech platform and Retention Consultancy suite that simplifies user engagement at scale. Industry veterans will lead the eight-session intensive program which aims to bridge the gap between traditional marketing theory and the practical application of data analytics in today’s competitive consumer tech landscape.
Speaking of the collaboration, MICA Dean Prof. Githa Heggde, said, “Today, data and technology is redefining consumer journeys and experiences. Hence, gaining a deeper understanding of the technologies that are reshaping and reconfiguring consumption experiences, costs and availability of data, analytics and business intelligence in media business becomes imperative. This collaboration with WebEngage acknowledges the growing need for academic programs that reflect the data-driven nature of modern marketing and will equip MESM area students with skills to tackle critical issues.”
Spanning over five weeks, this course will help students delve into challenges faced by massive media platforms in India’s highly competitive market. They will gain deep insights exploring how such platforms analyse customer data, tackle user engagement, communicate effectively across channels, and ultimately acquire users and retain them in this dynamic environment.
Delving into the course structure, MICA Prof. Santosh Patra and Prof. Anirudh Kalia, from the MESM area said, “Media, both as a vehicle and as businesses, have pivoted sharply from B2B to D2C under the waves of technology. This change makes it imperative for our media, entertainment and sports management specialisation students to learn data in all its nuances, building and managing consumer journeys and tools for engagement and retention. TechTonic – Consumer Tech & Campaign Mgmt is one such course that will equip them with both understanding and tools needed to navigate this better.”
“The course curriculum will expose students with in-depth key marketing principles like data-driven campaign planning, customer segmentation, personalisation and hyper-personalisation and retail media measurement”, they added.
WebEngage chief growth officer Ankur Gattani said, “This initiative aligns perfectly with WebEngage’s commitment to nurturing future-ready marketing, user engagement and retention professionals. There’s a great demand for talent in this space and I’m excited that MICA is giving the students a head-start into this subject – blending practical knowledge with their academic rigour.”
The course will have experts including Omnicom Media Group chief media officer Rabe T Iyer, Ankur Gattani, and Omnicom Media Group chief growth officer Anand Chakravarthy share their insights with our students.
Brands
Tessolve lands a semiconductor veteran to drive its next big push
Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, who started his career at ISRO and has spent 35 years building chips and companies, joins the Bengaluru-based firm as president and chief operating officer
BENGALURU: Tessolve has never been shy about its ambitions. The Bengaluru-based engineering services firm already counts 18 of the world’s top 20 semiconductor companies among its clients, employs more than 3,500 engineers across 12 countries, and last year pocketed a $150m investment from TPG. Now it has hired the executive it believes can turn those assets into something bigger. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, a 35-year semiconductor veteran who once built satellite payloads for ISRO and has since scaled engineering organisations across three continents, joins as president and chief operating officer, effective immediately.
THE MAN AND THE MANDATE
The appointment is, by any measure, a serious hire. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu comes to Tessolve after senior leadership stints at HCL Technologies, Altran and Wipro, where he managed large profit-and-loss portfolios and oversaw cross-regional teams. Over the course of his career, he has been instrumental in bringing more than 1,000 new products to market across the high-tech, energy and manufacturing verticals. Before the private sector claimed him, he began his working life as a scientist at the Indian Space Research Organisation, contributing to research and development in charge-coupled device technology and satellite payloads, a foundation that shaped everything that followed.
In his new role, he will lead Tessolve’s global growth strategy: expanding its engineering capabilities, deepening customer relationships and accelerating innovation across semiconductor and high-performance computing domains. The brief is broad, but the context is specific. Tessolve operates in the $550 billion global semiconductor market, and its recent moves, the acquisition of Germany’s Dream Chip Technologies and the TPG funding round, have sharpened both its reach and its expectations.
Srini Chinamilli, co-founder and chief executive of Tessolve, is characteristically direct about why Ravi Kumar Chirugudu was the choice:
“As we scale our global semiconductor and system engineering capabilities, Ravi’s appointment marks an important step forward. As global semiconductor demand continues to accelerate across industries, it is creating significant opportunities across the semiconductor lifecycle, from design, packaging, validation and systems integration. Ravi’s deep knowledge and leadership in this ecosystem brings the right mix of industry expertise, customer connect and execution capability, which will play a key role in strengthening our position as a trusted global engineering partner and reinforcing our market leadership.”
THE NEW ARRIVAL SPEAKS
Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, for his part, frames the move in terms of timing and culture, two factors that veteran executives tend to weigh as heavily as title or compensation:
“I am happy to join Tessolve at a time when the industry is rapidly evolving towards more complex, AI-driven systems. What stands out to me is its strong people-first culture and its commitment to bringing value to its customers. The strength of its global team, combined with its deep expertise in semiconductor innovation and next-generation product engineering, creates a solid foundation to build differentiated, scalable solutions. I look forward to working closely with the team to drive strategic growth and strengthen its role in shaping the global semiconductor ecosystem.”
The reference to AI-driven systems is not incidental. The semiconductor industry is in the midst of a structural reshaping, driven by the insatiable compute demands of artificial intelligence. For engineering services firms like Tessolve, which offers end-to-end capabilities from silicon design to packaged parts and invests in high-performance computing, high-speed interfaces, photonics and 5G, the moment is both an opportunity and a test. The company says it is well positioned to capture the next wave of industry growth. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu is now the person who has to prove it.
He came in from outer space, literally, and spent three decades learning how the semiconductor industry works from the inside out. Now Tessolve is betting that accumulated knowledge can help it cross the next frontier. In the $550 billion global chip market, the gap between ambition and execution is measured in engineering hours and leadership quality. Tessolve has just gone shopping for both.
