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.
AD Agencies
The Advertising Club adds new categories to Creative Abby 2026
Awards expand global focus; entries open until 6 April
MUMBAI: The Advertising Club has unveiled a fresh set of categories for Creative Abby 2026, sharpening the awards’ global edge while keeping creativity firmly centre stage.
The updated entry form, reflecting all category refinements, is now live on the Club’s website. The awards continue their partnership with The One Club and The One Show. Entries close on April 6, 2026, and eligible work must have been released between April 1, 2025 and March 31, 2026. Winners will be announced at Goafest 2026.
This year, the Abby Awards Governing Council went a step further, inviting some of India’s most awarded creative leaders and global jury veterans to help reimagine the categories and judging process. The result is a sharper, more future facing framework.
Two new categories have been introduced:
Social content and influencer marketing
Recognising the fast expanding universe of digital creators, collaborations and community building.
Creative commerce, use of data and B2B
Celebrating innovation across online and offline commerce, payment solutions, data driven channels, creative B2B and immersive brand experiences.
Both categories are designed to reward craft and quality of impact, rather than pure effectiveness metrics.
In a bid to stay relevant in a rapidly evolving digital landscape, seven sub categories within the Digital vertical have been removed after being deemed redundant.
Three social good verticals, Green Abby, Red Abby and Diversity Equality and Inclusivity, have now been merged into a single category titled Sustainability and Inclusion, bringing purpose driven work under one cohesive umbrella.
The Mobile category has been discontinued, reflecting the reality that mobile is no longer a niche medium but embedded across digital formats. The new Social Content and Influencer Marketing vertical is expected to absorb much of this work.
Acknowledging the role of marketers in driving creative excellence, a new honour titled Client of the Year has been introduced. It will be awarded to the client whose brands accumulate the highest number of points.
There is also a key change in how Creative Agency of the Year is calculated. Previously determined by points across eight traditional categories such as Print, Film, OOH, Integrated, Audio and Digital, the award will now consider performance across 18 creative categories, excluding Video Craft and Young Maverick Abby. The shift broadens the competitive canvas and reflects the industry’s expanding definition of creativity.
The Advertising Club president and McCann India CEO Dheeraj Sinha said Goafest has long stood for collaboration and creative excellence. He noted that in its 57th year, the Abby Awards continue to raise the bar and bring together the brightest minds in the business.
Abby Awards 2026 chairperson Ajay Kakar, added that the categories had been co created with leading creative luminaries for the first time. He expressed gratitude to The One Club and The One Show for supporting the judging process over the past five years and thanked agencies and clients for their consistent participation.
With new categories, sharper criteria and a broader lens on creativity, Creative Abby 2026 signals that in advertising, evolution is not optional. It is the brief.
