MAM
Rana Barua re-elected president of The Advertising Club for second term
Mumbai: The Advertising, marketing and media industry’s apex body – The Advertising Club has announced the managing committee for the current fiscal, i.e., F.Y. 2024-2025, at its 70th annual general meeting. Rana Barua, Group CEO, Havas India, South East & North Asia (Japan & South Korea) Havas Group – India has been re-elected to lead the body.
Speaking about the appointment, The Advertising Club president Rana Barua said, “I am truly honoured to lead the prestigious Advertising Club for a second term. This past year has been an enriching journey, marked by significant milestones in a dynamic, ever-evolving industry. Together with my esteemed committee, we have made remarkable strides, and I look forward to building on this momentum in the year ahead with a fresh team and ambitious goals.”
The below members were elected unopposed. The Office Bearers of The Advertising Club for 2024-2025 are –
. Rana Barua – president
. Dheeraj Sinha – vice president
. Dr. Bhaskar Das – secretary
. Punitha Arumugam – Jt. secretary
. Mitrajit Bhattacharya – treasurer
Managing Committee Members include the below industry leaders who will play a decisive role in driving synergies and ensuring the success of all The Advertising Club initiatives:
. Avinash Kaul
. Malcolm Raphael
. Prasanth Kumar
. Mansha Tandon
. Ajay Kakar
. Sonia Huria
. Subramanyeswar S.
In addition, given below is the list of co-opted industry professionals:
. Mayur Hola
. Pradeep Dwivedi
. Sagnik Ghosh
The below list of leaders are special invitees and bring immense value to The Advertising Club through their expertise and deep understanding of the respective industry segments:
. Ajay Chandwani
. Alok Lall
. Amitesh Rao
. Lulu Raghavan
. Ashit Kukian
. Raj Nayak
. Satyanarayan Raghavan
. Vikas Khanchandani
. Vaishali Verma
Partha Sinha will continue as a member of the managing committee as the Immediate Past President for the ensuing year.
Brands
IICT partners with Gativedhi to bring studio production tools to students
New MoU lets students explore AI-driven production pipelines for AVGC-XR
MUMBAI: The Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT) has teamed up with Gativedhi Technologies to give students a front-row seat to modern studio production. The collaboration will integrate Gativedhi’s AI-powered production intelligence platform, Shotrack, into academic programmes, letting students experience the workflow systems used by animation, VFX and gaming studios.
Under the MoU, faculty, students and researchers will get hands-on access to Shotrack through beta programmes, pilot deployments and academic evaluations. This will allow them to explore simulated production pipelines, understand asset management, track tasks and monitor schedules, essentially seeing how complex projects come together behind the scenes.
Shotrack is designed to tackle a key industry challenge: when multiple studios work on the same project, differing internal systems often create bottlenecks, slow approvals and complicate version control. The platform provides a unified production environment, enabling smoother collaboration across distributed teams while generating operational insights and predictive analytics to optimise crew allocation, forecast schedule risks and manage costs.
The collaboration also opens doors to Gativedhi’s wider ecosystem. Upcoming tools include StudioTrack, for studio operations management covering budgeting, recruitment and IT infrastructure, and WorkTrack, which measures workflow efficiency and team productivity across industries.
IICT plans to embed these tools into programmes covering animation pipelines, VFX workflows, gaming production and media project management. Students will also benefit from guest lectures, masterclasses, workshops, internships and research projects that connect academic learning with real-world studio practices.
IICT CEO Vishwas Deoskar, said the partnership provides “An environment where production pipeline tools can be explored, tested and refined while students gain insight into how large-scale productions are organised.”
Gativedhi Technologies founder & CEO Senthil Kumar added, “This collaboration introduces students to real-world studio management tools and helps us improve our platform with academic feedback.”
With Shotrack in classrooms, India’s future animators, VFX artists and gaming producers will get a taste of studio life long before they step into one.
