Brands
PNB Housing Finance appoints Ajai Kumar Shukla as MD and CEO
NEW DELHI: PNB Housing Finance has a new hand on the tiller. The housing lender said Ajai Kumar Shukla has assumed charge as managing director and chief executive officer with effect from December 18, 2025, marking a leadership reset as the company charts its next growth cycle.
The appointment, approved by the board on the recommendation of the nomination and remuneration committee, is for a five-year term and follows receipt of regulatory clearances. The company had earlier informed stock exchanges of the decision.
Shukla brings more than three decades of experience in housing and mortgage lending. He joins from Tata Capital Housing Finance, where he spent 16 years in senior leadership roles spanning business growth, credit, risk management, valuation, digital transformation and affordable housing finance. Earlier stints include ICICI Bank and LIC Housing Finance.
D Surendran, chairperson and non-executive nominee director, said Shukla’s domain depth and execution track record would be critical as the lender strengthens its franchise and sharpens its focus on sustainable growth and customer trust.
Shukla called the role a timely opportunity, saying the company was well placed to align with India’s housing ambitions while pushing operational excellence, innovation and inclusive growth.
With a seasoned operator at the helm, PNB Housing Finance is signalling intent. In a tightening market, experience, it seems, is back in fashion.
Brands
Godrej clarifies ‘GI’ identifier after logo similarity debate
Says GI is not a logo, will not replace Godrej signature across products.
MUMBAI: In a branding storm where shapes did the talking, Godrej is now spelling things out. Godrej Industries Group (GIG) has issued a clarification on its newly introduced ‘GI’ identifier, addressing questions around its purpose and design following a wave of online criticism. At the centre of the debate were two concerns: whether the new mark replaces the long-standing Godrej logo, and whether its geometric design mirrors other corporate identities.
The company has drawn a clear line. The Godrej signature logo, it said, remains unchanged and continues to be the sole logo across all consumer-facing products and services. The ‘GI’ mark, by contrast, is not a logo but a corporate group identifier intended for use alongside the Godrej signature or company name, and aimed at stakeholders such as investors, media and talent rather than consumers.
The need for such a distinction stems from the 2024 restructuring of the broader Godrej Group into two separate business entities. With both continuing to operate under the same Godrej name and signature, the identifier is positioned as a way to differentiate the Godrej Industries Group at a corporate level.
The rollout, however, triggered a broader conversation on design originality. Critics pointed to similarities between the GI mark’s geometric composition and logos used by companies globally, raising questions about distinctiveness.
Responding to this, GIG said its intellectual property and legal review found that such overlaps are common in minimalist, geometry-led design systems. Basic forms such as circles and rectangles appear across dozens of brand identities worldwide, the company noted.
It added that the identifier emerged from an extensive design process and was chosen for its simplicity, allowing it to sit alongside the Godrej signature without competing visually. While acknowledging that elemental shapes may appear less distinctive in isolation, the group emphasised that the mark is part of a broader identity system that includes a custom typeface, sonic branding and other proprietary elements.
Following legal and ethical assessments, the company said it found no impediment to using the identifier, reiterating that the GI mark is a corporate tool not a consumer-facing symbol.
In short, the logo isn’t changing but the conversation around it certainly has.
