MAM
Serving change on a national platter as Forbes India backs grassroots power
MUMBAI: Call it service with a side of scale. Forbes India turned the spotlight on grassroots grit at the national finale of We Serve India – Season 2, where community-led ideas proved that impact travels fastest when it starts at the ground level.
Hosted at the Mahatma Mandir Convention and Exhibition Centre in Gandhinagar, the finale brought together an unusually diverse mix of changemakers, policy voices, CSR leaders and UN representatives. This year’s edition widened its frame, aligning the initiative with the United Nations’ global themes for 2025 and giving the programme a sharper national and international edge.
The campaign recognised individuals and organisations delivering measurable outcomes across five focus areas, Innovation in Education and Skill Development, Environmental Sustainability, Inclusive Healthcare and Accessibility, Tech-led Social Innovation, and Women-led Social Innovation. The emphasis was not on intent alone, but on work that has shown the ability to scale while staying rooted in local realities.
Season 2 built on the momentum of the inaugural edition, which surfaced more than 150 changemakers and carried their stories across digital and broadcast platforms. This time, the search culminated in the selection of five National Winners and five Runners-up, chosen after months of nationwide nominations, regional showcases across North, East, South and West India, and a detailed evaluation process conducted by EY.
The finale doubled as a serious ideas exchange. A panel on “Scaling Grassroots Innovation Across the Global South” examined how community-first solutions can be replicated sustainably, without losing context or credibility. The discussion reflected a growing shift from isolated success stories to systems that can travel across borders.
With senior government dignitaries, development sector leaders, CSR and ESG heads, philanthropists, academicians and Lions Clubs International members in attendance, the gathering stood out as one of the country’s largest convenings centred on social innovation.
More than an awards night, Forbes India We Serve India, presented by Lions Clubs International, is positioning itself as a platform for collaboration and policy-aligned action. By spotlighting grassroots innovation and encouraging ecosystem partnerships, the initiative is steadily shaping a broader blueprint for inclusive, scalable development, one community at a time.
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Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
