MAM
Truecaller onboards Pragya Misra Mehrishi as public affairs director in India
KOLKATA: Caller-identification app Truecaller has appointed Pragya Misra Mehrishi as director of public affairs in India. Truecaller stays committed to India by continuing to expand the public affairs mandate in its largest market with over 200 million users, the company said in a statement.
Pragya will be responsible for nurturing relationships with key stakeholders spanning government, media, partners, civil society, and investors and report to chief commercial officer Kari Krishnamurthy, it added.
Pragya joins from WhatsApp, where she was one of the early hires managing communications and driving reputation and advocacy efforts single-handedly for her first couple of years at the company. Prior to that, she was responsible for increasing trade from Danish private and public enterprises to India and South Asia at the Royal Danish Embassy. She also worked at EY India and had an entrepreneurial stint.
MAM
Beacon Group appoints Dr Rajesh Patel as Group CEO
36-year healthcare veteran to lead Beacon Diagnostics, Vector Biotek, Biogeny.
MUMBAI: A new chief, a fresh diagnosis and a sharper prescription for growth. Beacon Group has appointed Dr Rajesh Patel as its Group Chief Executive Officer, effective April 1, 2026, signalling a decisive push to scale its presence in the diagnostics and IVD space. Patel steps into the role with 36 years of experience across the healthcare and diagnostics industry, bringing a career shaped by leadership roles spanning sales, marketing, business development and operational strategy. His mandate is both expansive and precise: to steer the group’s overall strategic direction while tightening coordination across its three core entities Beacon Diagnostics, Vector Biotek and Biogeny Diagnostics.
In practical terms, that means driving cross-company synergies, accelerating market expansion and strengthening organisational capability areas increasingly critical as diagnostic players compete for scale in a fragmented yet rapidly evolving healthcare ecosystem. The group is positioning itself to capture unmet demand across chain laboratories, key accounts and standalone labs, segments that remain underserved despite growing diagnostic needs.
The appointment comes at a time when the In Vitro Diagnostics (IVD) sector in India is entering a more competitive and innovation-led phase, with companies focusing not just on product pipelines but also on service delivery, integration and customer-centric models. Beacon’s leadership appears to be betting that Patel’s execution-focused approach can help translate ambition into operational momentum.
Welcoming the appointment, Chairman Dr D K Joshi described Patel’s induction as a strategic move aligned with the group’s long-term vision, emphasising the role of leadership depth in navigating the next phase of growth.
For Beacon Group, the message is clear, in a sector where precision matters, leadership is the new differentiator—and this appointment is intended to set the tone for what comes next.
