Brands
Ravi Makwana joins Vadilal as chief marketing officer
AHMEDABAD: Vadilal industries has roped in Ravi Makwana as chief marketing officer, handing the reins of its brand engine to a marketer shaped by some of India’s biggest consumer franchises, just as the ice-cream battle turns ferocious.
Makwana steps in at a moment of intensifying competition, with incumbents turning aggressive and challengers inventing new formats and categories. At vadilal, he will steer brand strategy, product innovation and go-to-market muscle as the company sharpens its play in a rapidly expanding market.
Before this move, Makwana was category head at Zydus Wellness. Earlier, he served as chief marketing officer at Tim Hortons India, part of the seed team that brought the global coffee chain to the country, leading marketing and product from the ground up. He also spent nearly four years at Tata consumer products, rising through roles from head of brand to marketing director, overseeing flagship brands such as Tata salt and managing large portfolios with full P&L responsibility.
His earlier career spans over six years at Asian Paints across brand and sales leadership roles, where he managed businesses worth over Rs 2,000 crore and drove double-digit growth in competitive markets. Makwana began his professional journey at accenture before switching lanes decisively to consumer marketing.
At Vadilal, he will work closely with managing director Himanshu Kanwar and a board comprising Shiv Shivakumar, Nagarajan Sivaramakrishnan, Shalini Raghavan, Gaurav Marathe, Rajesh Gandhi, Devanshu G and Janmajay Gandhi.
With nostalgia on his side and a bruising market ahead, Makwana’s mandate is clear: make Vadilal louder, sharper and harder to beat—one scoop at a time.
Brands
Reserve Bank of India cancels Paytm Payments Bank licence
Central bank cites compliance failures; curbs tighten as wind-up looms
MUMBAI: India’s banking watchdog delivered its sharpest blow yet to Paytm Payments Bank, cancelling its licence and effectively ending its ability to operate as a bank under the law.
The Reserve Bank of India said the entity can no longer conduct banking business under the Banking Regulation Act, citing concerns that its affairs were not being run in the interest of depositors or the public and that it had failed to meet licence conditions.
The move escalates a crackdown that has been building for months. The bank had already been barred from onboarding new customers since March 11, 2022, and later faced restrictions on deposits, credit and wallet top-ups. In January 2024, the central bank ordered it to stop accepting fresh deposits, pointing to persistent non-compliance, including lapses in customer due diligence, use of funds and technology systems.
Operationally, the bank is now on a tight leash. It may process withdrawals of existing deposits and facilitate loan referrals through banking correspondents, but it cannot take fresh deposits.
The central bank said it would apply to the high court to wind up the bank.
Paytm sought to ringfence the fallout. In a regulatory filing, it said the licence cancellation applies to Paytm Payments Bank Limited, a separate entity, and should not be attributed to One 97 Communications. It added that there is no exposure or material business arrangement with the bank and that it operates independently, without Paytm’s board or management involvement.
“As informed earlier, Paytm (One 97 Communications Limited) and its services, which have been operating without interruption, will continue to operate uninterrupted. These include the Paytm app, Paytm UPI, Paytm Gold and all other services offered by its subsidiaries and associated companies,” the company said.
The distinction may reassure users of the app ecosystem, but the regulator’s verdict is unequivocal. After years of warnings, caps and curbs, the payments bank experiment at Paytm is being shut down—decisively, and with little room left to manoeuvre.
