MAM
Regional Roles for Ipsos India Senior Honchos
MUMBAI: Ipsos India has announced regional roles for two senior honchos. Vidya Sen, Executive Director, Innovation, Ipsos India, will now, in addition to her responsibilities as the Country Head for the Innovation Service Line, play an expanded role stretching across the entire Asia Pacific (APAC) Region for Ipsos Innovation. And Arun Agarwala, IT Director, Ipsos India will take up duties of some of the key markets in the APEC (Asia Pacific Excluding China) region, of Philippines, Indonesia & Vietnam.
Ipsos India is one of the largest and fastest growing markets in the region and is defining key benchmarks for specializations.
Vidya Sen’srole will now extend toregionally deploying training and ensuring compliance with the Innovation certification program. In addition, she will support the roll out and adoption of the New Innovation initiatives across the region. Vidya will also work closely with Alison Harvey, Senior Director, Global Service Line, Innovation, to ensure full global alignment with all initiatives.
“Ipsos is the world’s number one Product Testing Company. Ipsos Innovation has been engaging with clients in providing counsel and carrying out product tests for innumerable categories and brands across FMCG, Durables, Automotive, Healthcare, Personal Care, Telecom among others, helping clients innovate and reinvent in today’s changing world,” said Vidya Sen, Executive Director, Ipsos Innovation, Asia Pacific Region.
“In the pipeline are new improved tools for Ipsos Innovation,” Sen added.
Ipsos Innovation partners with clients in the end to end requirements on Innovation, ranging from opportunity identification, evaluation, optimization, and launchof their Innovation initiatives with proprietary products for idea screening, concept testing, product testing, full mix testing, pack testing, line optimization, pricing and sales forecasting.
On the other hand, Arun Agarwala, IT Director Ipsos India has taken up additional responsibilities for the key markets of Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam, with the local IT teams for these markets reporting to him.
“Ipsos aims to strengthen IT service support and IT management in APEC. My remit is to help the countries further increase local IT performance and service quality, includingIT services (support and training, knowledge sharing, meet KPIs, resource planning). Support and execute Global IT infrastructure, IT services projects andensuring ITas an enabler and business partner,” said Agarwala.
Agarwala in his new role reports to Mu Na, IT Director for APEC and China. He joined Ipsos in 2006 in the UK for Ipsos MORI, then moved to Ipsos India in 2011 and was elevated to IT Director in 2014.
MAM
Times Group’s Vineet Jain conferred lifetime media honour
Managing India award crowns four decades of expansion, ambition and cultural clout
NEW DELHI: Vineet Jain has picked up another trophy, and this one comes with a lifetime tag.
At the 70th foundation day and 20th national management day of All India Management Association in New Delhi, the managing director of The Times Group was conferred the “lifetime contribution to media” award, presented by education minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The honour formed part of AIMA’s 16th managing India awards, themed “Transforming for tomorrow: growth with resilience”.
AIMA’s citation was expansive and effusive. It hailed Jain as a “future-ready leader and agile entrepreneur” who has turned a legacy newspaper business into a diversified media powerhouse. Since the late 1980s, it noted, he has revitalised print while pushing aggressively into television, radio, internet, movies, music, sports, events, outdoor advertising, education and investments across 35 markets.
“He did not just grow a newspaper company; he built a multifaceted media empire that dominates information and entertainment in India and shapes the nation’s political and commercial awareness,” the citation said. “From television and radio to internet, movies, music, sports, events, outdoor advertising, education and investments, his leadership has created influential brands across every platform.”
Under Jain’s stewardship, television brands such as Times Now, ET Now and Zoom have expanded the group’s broadcast heft, while their digital avatars have chased new audiences online. Radio Mirchi, Gaana, Times OOH, Times Music and Magicbricks have emerged as category leaders. Legacy titles such as Femina and Filmfare have been retooled for new generations.
The group has also ventured beyond media. Through Bennett University and TimesPro, it has pushed into higher and executive education, while a national pickleball league signals a foray into the world’s fastest-growing sport.
AIMA credited Jain with balancing mass entertainment and intellectual ambition, citing the reinvention of the Filmfare awards and the Femina Miss India pageant nearly three decades ago, as well as the launch of the Times litfest.
Accepting the award, Jain struck a collective note. “It is a huge honour to receive this award. I dedicate it to my colleagues who have worked tirelessly to make The Times Group, India’s largest multi media company.”
He reiterated the group’s appetite for scale. “The Times Group is number one in every media vertical it has launched, and we will continue striving for excellence,” he said.
Four decades on, the message is clear. In a media market being torn up by technology and attention spans, Jain is still betting on breadth, brands and being number one.
