MAM
Saugato Bhowmik to head Viacom 18 Integrated Network Solutions, Jaideep Singh moves on
MUMBAI: Viacom18 has elevated Saugato Bhowmik as the head of its Integrated Network Solutions (INS) business unit. INS has been instrumental in developing brand solutions for consumers and live properties across music and entertainment genres. Bhowmik takes on the role from Jaideep Singh who will be moving on from the organization. Along with this new role, Bhowmik will continue to head the Consumer Products business line at Viacom18.
Commenting on this development, Viacom18 Group CEO Sudhanshu Vats said, “Saugato has rich experience in marketing and his expertise in consumer products has enabled us to monetize various brand properties through successful merchandising and licensing partnerships. We are confident that his sharp marketing sense and ability to mine consumer insights will help grow the INS business further. I would also like to take this opportunity to wish Jaideep the best for his future endeavors.”
Vats further added, “We are taking this opportunity to build a fully ‘Integrated Network Solutions’ business with Consumer Products, BE Viacom18 & LIVE Viacom18 managed synergistically by one team for the organization”
LIVE Viacom18 has launched successful IPs like VH1 Supersonic, MTV Bollyland, Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards, Emerge, MTV Xtreme and Comedy Central Chuckle Festival.
Viacom18 Consumer Products has been extremely successful in creating a robust portfolio of merchandize for the kids and youth segment with products including exclusive ‘Back-to-School’ Toys & Apparel in the kids segment. And everything from footwear to a themed café under the MTV brand name for the youth. The licensing arm of the network has also inked exclusive deals with ‘FC Barcelona’ & ‘Peppa Pig’
Brands
Samsung certifies 1,000 Maharashtra students in AI and coding
The South Korean electronics giant marks its first large-scale skilling push in the state, with women making up nearly half the national programme’s enrolment
PUNE: Samsung has put 1,000 students in Maharashtra through a certified training programme in artificial intelligence and coding, the largest such drive the South Korean electronics company has run in the state and a signal that corporate India’s skilling ambitions are moving well beyond the boardroom brochure.
The certifications were awarded under Samsung Innovation Campus (SIC), the company’s flagship corporate social responsibility programme, which launched in India in 2022 with the stated aim of democratising access to future-technology education. The 1,000 graduates were drawn from four institutions: 127 from Savitribai Phule Pune University, 373 from Pimpri Chinchwad University, 250 from D.Y. Patil University’s Ramrao Adik Institute of Technology and 250 from Anjuman-I-Islam’s Kalsekar Technical Campus. All completed training in either AI or coding and programming, the two disciplines Samsung has identified as the critical pillars of the digital economy.
The programme does not stop at technical training. Soft-skills development and career-readiness modules are baked into the curriculum, a deliberate attempt to close the gap between what universities teach and what employers actually want.
“India’s digital growth story will ultimately be shaped by the quality of its talent pipeline,” said Shubham Mukherjee, head of CSR and corporate communications at Samsung Southwest Asia. “As technologies like AI move from the periphery to the core of industries, skilling must evolve from basic training to building real-world capability. This milestone in Maharashtra reflects how industry and academia can come together to create a future-ready workforce that is both globally competitive and locally relevant.”
The Maharashtra drive sits within a rapidly scaling national effort. Samsung Innovation Campus trained 20,000 young people across India in 2025, hitting its stated target for the year. Women account for 48 per cent of national enrolments, a figure the company cites as evidence of its push for an inclusive technology ecosystem. The programme is implemented in partnership with the Electronics Sector Skills Council of India and the Telecom Sector Skill Council.
Samsung, which is marking 30 years in India this year, runs SIC alongside two other initiatives, Samsung Solve for Tomorrow and Samsung DOST, as part of a broader effort to build what it calls a generation of innovators with both the technical depth and the problem-solving mindset to thrive in a fast-moving digital world.
A thousand certified students is a tidy headline. Whether they find jobs that match their new skills is the harder question, and the one that will ultimately determine whether corporate skilling programmes like this one are genuine pipelines or well-photographed gestures.
