MAM
Signals are for a mild ad slowdown: Mindshare’s Lala
MUMBAI: The ad slowdown is not a serious worry at this stage but is beginning to bite mildly, a senior executive at Mindshare said.
Slashing the early forecast, Mindshare principal partner Jai Lala pegged the growth figure at 8-10 per cent this year on the back of a weak GDP growth and a dip in sports advertising revenues.
“If in the recent years we were growing at 18-20 per cent, we will now grow at 8-10 per cent. It‘s not degrowth but slower growth. A good quarter will, however, bring the buoyancy back,” said Lala.
The Mindshare executive believes that the upper limit is the most likely speed the ad industry will grow in India this year but does not rule out certain slowing influences that could dampen the mood.
“We should be growing at 10 per cent unless we are pulled down by bearish influences,” he said.
Mindshare had at the beginning of the year predicted that the ad industry would grow at 12 per cent, expecting it to touch Rs 373.97 billion.
Lala feels that the dip in financial advertising would be more or less made up by the FMCG companies as they come out with new launches and increase spends due to intense competition in the sector.
The retail sector is also witnessing a slowdown. “Print would be more affected since both financial services and retail are heavy ad spenders in that medium. Finance is co-related to the Sensex and we could see a bounce back if the markets start doing well,” explained Lala.
Another drag down has been the Indian Premier League (IPL) which fetched lower revenues than last year. “We were anyway expecting the sports genre to be hit as we had the cricket World Cup last year. The reduction in ad spends on the IPL may be attributed largely to the fact that consumer durables and automobile categories did not spend as robustly on the property as last year,” averred Lala.
Though it is still early to ring the alarm bells, expect a mild ad slowdown this year if the economy doesn‘t slump further.
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Uidai partners with Google to help users locate Aadhaar centres
Verified Aadhaar centres to appear on Maps with services and access info
MUMBAI: Finding an Aadhaar centre may soon be as easy as finding your favourite café. In a move aimed at making public services more accessible, the Unique Identification Authority of India has partnered with Google to display authorised Aadhaar centres on Google Maps. The feature, expected to roll out in the coming months, will allow residents to locate verified centres quickly and confidently.
More than 60,000 Aadhaar centres, including state of the art Aadhaar Seva Kendras, will be mapped. When users search on Google Maps, they will be directed to authorised facilities rather than unverified listings, helping curb misinformation and confusion.
The listings will do more than drop a pin. Users will be able to see the nature of services offered at each centre, whether it is adult enrolment, child enrolment, or limited to address and mobile number updates. Details such as operating hours, parking availability and divyang friendly infrastructure will also be shown wherever applicable.
Uidai CEO Bhuvnesh Kumar, said the collaboration is part of the authority’s continued effort to improve ease of living for Aadhaar holders by making authorised centres simpler and faster to navigate.
The partnership will deepen in its next phase, with Uidai using Google Business Profile to manage information and respond directly to public feedback. Looking ahead, the two organisations are also exploring the option of enabling appointment bookings through the Google Maps interface, potentially allowing residents to plan their visits with greater efficiency.
Google India country head, strategic partnerships Roli Agarwal, said integrating verified Aadhaar centres would help millions access trusted services with confidence, bringing essential government infrastructure closer to the people who need it most.
If all goes to plan, a routine Aadhaar update may soon begin not with a queue, but with a search bar.
