MAM
Pantaloon aligns its media AOR with Carat
MUMBAI: Pantaloon Retail India Limited has decided to align the media AOR of its value and lifestyles retailing stores to Carat Media Services India Private Limited.
The company operates in the value retail domain through Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar, Gold Bazaar and Footwear Bazaar. Under lifestyle retail, the brands are Pantaloons and Central. The incumbent agency was Insight.
Pantaloon Retail head marketing Sanjeev Agrawal says, “We are taking the ROI aspect of media to the next level. For this we wanted to partner with an agency that has sound understanding of the processes and has used the same to further other clients businesses. It was in this aspect that Carat did lot of good work. Carat also has a strong understanding and use of research and other statistical proprietary tools.”
Agrawal further adds, “We required partnering with an agency that is very strong and would bring on board fresh strategic and tactical skills.”
Carat CEO West and South Shripad Kulkarni says, “Retail is a very big opportunity and an even bigger challenge for Media. We look forward to this challenge, armed with Carat global learnings and working as a part of Sanjeev’s team.”
Carat Group CEO Charles Jenarius adds, ‘In Singapore and Australia, Carat has worked out effective solutions for retail, including sophisticated response modeling. It was this learning which we adapted to the Indian market that helped us winning the clients confidence.”
The key accounts of Carat include Philips, Adidas, General Mills, Dabur, Max New York Life, Ozone Pharma, Universal dairy UDV, Mattel Toys, Sahara, and AAG, the Guild comprising 32 Delhi Headquartered Agencies now.
Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd is also looking at selling a 4.53 per cent stake to Bennett Coleman & Co Ltd, to raise funds for its expansion.
Brands
Uidai partners with Google to help users locate Aadhaar centres
Verified Aadhaar centres to appear on Maps with services and access info
MUMBAI: Finding an Aadhaar centre may soon be as easy as finding your favourite café. In a move aimed at making public services more accessible, the Unique Identification Authority of India has partnered with Google to display authorised Aadhaar centres on Google Maps. The feature, expected to roll out in the coming months, will allow residents to locate verified centres quickly and confidently.
More than 60,000 Aadhaar centres, including state of the art Aadhaar Seva Kendras, will be mapped. When users search on Google Maps, they will be directed to authorised facilities rather than unverified listings, helping curb misinformation and confusion.
The listings will do more than drop a pin. Users will be able to see the nature of services offered at each centre, whether it is adult enrolment, child enrolment, or limited to address and mobile number updates. Details such as operating hours, parking availability and divyang friendly infrastructure will also be shown wherever applicable.
Uidai CEO Bhuvnesh Kumar, said the collaboration is part of the authority’s continued effort to improve ease of living for Aadhaar holders by making authorised centres simpler and faster to navigate.
The partnership will deepen in its next phase, with Uidai using Google Business Profile to manage information and respond directly to public feedback. Looking ahead, the two organisations are also exploring the option of enabling appointment bookings through the Google Maps interface, potentially allowing residents to plan their visits with greater efficiency.
Google India country head, strategic partnerships Roli Agarwal, said integrating verified Aadhaar centres would help millions access trusted services with confidence, bringing essential government infrastructure closer to the people who need it most.
If all goes to plan, a routine Aadhaar update may soon begin not with a queue, but with a search bar.
