Brands
Rahul Agarwal joins MakeMyTrip Group as VP head of technology
GURUGRAM: Rahul Agarwal has taken over as vice president head of technology at MakeMyTrip Group, stepping into a role that sits quietly at the centre of India’s fast moving travel ecosystem.
Based in Gurugram, Agarwal will lead enterprise technology across MakeMyTrip, Goibibo, redBus and other group entities. His mandate is wide and weighty, spanning ERP, analytics, artificial intelligence and cloud platforms, all with one clear goal: making the group’s technology sharper, faster and ready for scale.
While travellers may never see the systems he builds, they will feel their impact. From smoother bookings to smarter pricing and more reliable operations, Agarwal’s work is expected to power the backstage engine of India’s most recognisable travel brands.
He joins MakeMyTrip after a high impact stint at Airtel, where he served as AVP and centre of excellence head for supply chain and ERP. There, he led large scale digitisation programmes across 23 circles, rolled out global logistics and planning platforms, and drove AI and automation across dozens of supply chain use cases. Before that came senior technology leadership roles at The Coca-Cola Company, KPMG and Deloitte, with a career steeped in ERP, cloud transformation and enterprise strategy.
Agarwal’s journey began far from travel tech, in engineering roles focused on simulation and manufacturing, before evolving into a career defined by digital transformation at scale. That mix of deep technical grounding and boardroom level execution now places him at the heart of MakeMyTrip’s next chapter.
As the group sharpens its focus on innovation and customer experience, Agarwal’s appointment signals a clear intent. Travel may be about destinations, but at MakeMyTrip, the next journey is firmly powered by technology.
Brands
Dunkin’ Donuts to exit India as Jubilant FoodWorks ends 15-year franchise deal
The quick service restaurant giant is ending a 15-year franchise partnership with the American doughnut chain, even as it renews its Domino’s agreement for another 15 years
NOIDA: Dunkin’ is done in India. Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd, the country’s leading quick service restaurant operator, has decided not to renew its franchise agreement with the American coffee and doughnut chain, and will wind down its Indian stores in a phased manner before December 31, 2026, bringing a 15-year partnership to a quiet, loss-laden close.
The decision, approved by JFL’s board on March 30, 2026, ends a relationship that began with a Multiple Unit Development Franchise Agreement signed on February 24, 2011. JFL will now evaluate and undertake what it described in a regulatory filing as the “rationalisation and/or cessation of certain operations and/or sale, transfer or disposal of assets and/or assignment or transfer of franchise rights,” all in consultation with Dunkin’s brand owners and strictly within the terms of the original agreement.
The numbers tell the story bluntly. In the financial year 2024-25, Dunkin’ India posted a revenue of Rs 37 crore against a loss of Rs 19 crore — a haemorrhage that was always going to test the patience of a parent company recording revenues of Rs 6,104 crore and a profit of Rs 194 crore in the same period. Doughnuts, it turns out, were never going to move the needle.
The contrast with JFL’s handling of its other marquee franchise could hardly be sharper. Even as it walks away from Dunkin’, the company has just doubled down on Domino’s, signing a fresh Master Franchise Agreement on March 31, 2026, granting it exclusive rights to develop and operate Domino’s Pizza stores in India for 15 years, with an option to renew for a further 10.
JFL, incorporated in 1995 and promoted by the Bharatia family, operates a network of more than 3,500 stores across six markets — India, Turkey, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Its portfolio includes Domino’s and Popeyes on the global side, and two home-grown brands: Hong’s Kitchen and COFFY, a café brand in Turkey.
For Dunkin’, India was always a stretch. The brand never quite cracked the cultural code in a market where filter coffee and chai command fierce loyalty and where the doughnut remains, at best, an occasional indulgence rather than a daily habit. Fifteen years, mounting losses and a parent with better things to spend its capital on was always going to be a difficult equation to solve.
The doughnut has had its last day. The pizza, however, is staying.
