Brands
Mirah Hospitality names Amit Jambotkar as new COO
MUMBAI: Mirah Hospitality & Gourmet Solutions Pvt. Ltd. has appointed hospitality veteran Amit Jambotkar as chief operating officer, marking his return to the company where he previously served as vice president – operations. With over 28 years of experience across food and beverage and hospitality, Jambotkar is set to drive operational excellence, brand growth, and next-level guest experiences across Mirah’s expanding portfolio.
Before rejoining Mirah, Jambotkar held several senior leadership roles, including vice president – food & beverage at Shott Amusement Limited, where he oversaw nationwide F&B strategy, and director – operations West at JSM Corporation, managing flagship brands like Hard Rock Cafe, Asilo, Shiro, and California Pizza Kitchen. His portfolio also spans notable contributions to Impresario Entertainment & Hospitality, shaping and scaling popular concepts such as Social, AntiSocial, Salt Water Grill, and Smokehouse Deli, alongside stints with Hyatt Regency, Jumeirah Group, and Reliance MediaWorks.
Commenting on his appointment, Jambotkar said he is thrilled to begin this new chapter, bringing his expertise in brand building, profitability, and disruptive concept launches to Mirah. His leadership is expected to guide the company through its next phase of strategic expansion, reinforcing its position as a dynamic force in India’s organised F&B space.
Mirah Hospitality now looks forward to leveraging Jambotkar’s vast experience to enhance guest experiences, streamline operations, and strengthen its footprint across India’s vibrant hospitality landscape.
Brands
Samsung certifies 1,000 Maharashtra students in AI and coding
The South Korean electronics giant marks its first large-scale skilling push in the state, with women making up nearly half the national programme’s enrolment
PUNE: Samsung has put 1,000 students in Maharashtra through a certified training programme in artificial intelligence and coding, the largest such drive the South Korean electronics company has run in the state and a signal that corporate India’s skilling ambitions are moving well beyond the boardroom brochure.
The certifications were awarded under Samsung Innovation Campus (SIC), the company’s flagship corporate social responsibility programme, which launched in India in 2022 with the stated aim of democratising access to future-technology education. The 1,000 graduates were drawn from four institutions: 127 from Savitribai Phule Pune University, 373 from Pimpri Chinchwad University, 250 from D.Y. Patil University’s Ramrao Adik Institute of Technology and 250 from Anjuman-I-Islam’s Kalsekar Technical Campus. All completed training in either AI or coding and programming, the two disciplines Samsung has identified as the critical pillars of the digital economy.
The programme does not stop at technical training. Soft-skills development and career-readiness modules are baked into the curriculum, a deliberate attempt to close the gap between what universities teach and what employers actually want.
“India’s digital growth story will ultimately be shaped by the quality of its talent pipeline,” said Shubham Mukherjee, head of CSR and corporate communications at Samsung Southwest Asia. “As technologies like AI move from the periphery to the core of industries, skilling must evolve from basic training to building real-world capability. This milestone in Maharashtra reflects how industry and academia can come together to create a future-ready workforce that is both globally competitive and locally relevant.”
The Maharashtra drive sits within a rapidly scaling national effort. Samsung Innovation Campus trained 20,000 young people across India in 2025, hitting its stated target for the year. Women account for 48 per cent of national enrolments, a figure the company cites as evidence of its push for an inclusive technology ecosystem. The programme is implemented in partnership with the Electronics Sector Skills Council of India and the Telecom Sector Skill Council.
Samsung, which is marking 30 years in India this year, runs SIC alongside two other initiatives, Samsung Solve for Tomorrow and Samsung DOST, as part of a broader effort to build what it calls a generation of innovators with both the technical depth and the problem-solving mindset to thrive in a fast-moving digital world.
A thousand certified students is a tidy headline. Whether they find jobs that match their new skills is the harder question, and the one that will ultimately determine whether corporate skilling programmes like this one are genuine pipelines or well-photographed gestures.
