MAM
Mindteck’s CEO logs out after five years of steering growth
MUMBAI: After five years at the helm, Mindteck’s managing director and CEO, Anand Balakrishnan, is set to bid adieu, with his resignation effective from 31 May 2025. The global engineering and technology solutions company announced that Balakrishnan will continue in his role for the next three months, ensuring a seamless leadership transition.
Reflecting on his tenure, Balakrishnan described the journey as both “rewarding and challenging,” stating, “With Mindteck well-positioned for continued success, I feel this is the right time for a leadership transition. My decision is based on personal reasons, and I look forward to focusing on these aspects at this stage in my life.”
Under his leadership, Mindteck saw significant transformation, with sustainable growth and improved liquidity shaping its trajectory. “While we regret to see Anand step down, we respect his decision,” said Mindteck chairman Yusuf Lanewala. “He has played a crucial role in positioning Mindteck for long-term success, and we extend our gratitude for his contributions.”
The Board has accepted his resignation and has tasked the Nomination and Remuneration Committee with selecting a suitable successor. As Mindteck gears up for its next chapter, all eyes are on who will take the baton to drive the company’s future growth.
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Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
