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Ormax, What’s On India to create planning models for TV promo effectiveness
MUMBAI: Indian TV guide company What’s On India has joined hands with Ormax Media to create a learning initiative on promotional strategies for television channels.
Ormax Media has been mandated to create specialised planning tools and techniques that will allow TV broadcasters to use the What’s On India TV guidance channel more efficiently.
Says What’s On India CEO Atul Phadnis, “Internationally, a TV guidance channel is used by TV networks to distribute a host of messages to TV viewers, and most importantly to promote their channels and programmes. However, we realise that a TV guidance channel is a very different medium than other media currently being used by television channels, including outdoor, print and conventional television. In India, Ormax Media will be taking on the role to enable broadcasters to use our channel better. We have also licensed certain critical templates and planning tools from our TV guidance partners across the world to enrich this process.”
Ormax Media director Shailesh Kapoor adds, “The context and the uniqueness a channel like What’s On India brings with it, demands that it be used differently in a TV Network’s marketing and promotional plans. This difference will apply to various aspects of promo planning, like campaign period, types of innovations, day and day-part scheduling, recency and interactivity. Eventually, the purpose is to deliver an efficient eyeballs generating plan to the broadcasters advertising on What’s On India.”
MAM
Raghu Rai passes away at 83, leaves behind iconic legacy
Padma Shri-winning photographer documented history across 5 decades.
MUMBAI: The lens may have stilled, but the stories it captured will never fade. Raghu Rai, one of India’s most celebrated photojournalists, passed away on April 26, 2026, at the age of 83. He breathed his last at a private hospital in New Delhi after battling cancer and age-related health issues.
His son, Nitin Rai, revealed that Rai had been diagnosed with prostate cancer two years ago, which later spread to the stomach and, more recently, the brain. Despite multiple rounds of treatment, his health had declined in recent months.
Born in 1942 in Jhang, Punjab (now in Pakistan), Rai entered photography in his early twenties, inspired by his elder brother, photographer S. Paul. Beginning his career in the mid-1960s, he went on to build a body of work that spanned more than five decades, contributing to global publications such as Time, Life, GEO, Le Figaro, The New York Times, Vogue, GQ and Marie Claire.
His global recognition took a decisive leap in 1977 when legendary French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson nominated him to join Magnum Photos, placing him among the world’s most respected visual storytellers.
Rai’s lens chronicled both power and poignancy. He photographed towering figures such as Indira Gandhi, Dalai Lama, Bal Thackeray, Satyajit Ray and Mother Teresa, while also documenting defining moments like the Bhopal gas tragedy later captured in his book Exposure: A Corporate Crime.
Over the years, he published more than 18 books, building an archive that blended journalism with artistry. His contributions were recognised early when he was awarded the Padma Shri in 1972 for his coverage of the Bangladesh War and refugee crisis. In 1992, he was named “Photographer of the Year” in the United States for his work in National Geographic, and in 2009, he was honoured with the Officier des Arts et des Lettres by the French government.
Rai is survived by his wife Gurmeet, son Nitin, and daughters Lagan, Avani and Purvai. His last rites will be held at Lodhi Cremation Ground in New Delhi at 4 pm on Sunday.
With his passing, Indian photojournalism loses not just a pioneer, but a patient observer of history, one frame at a time.
