MAM
Walkabout launches India’s first athlete recognition for over-55s
Walkabout Athlete Program offers Rs 25,000 stipend and national spotlight to active seniors 55 plus in track, badminton, cycling, swimming, kabaddi and more.
MUMBAI: Age may be just a number, but for India’s over-55 athletes it’s finally getting the medal it deserves without anyone having to hang up their boots. Walkabout, India’s largest community platform for active agers (55 plus), has rolled out the Walkabout Athlete Program, the country’s first formal initiative to recognise and support older adults who continue to compete seriously in organised sports. From track and field to badminton, cycling, swimming, martial arts, kabaddi, hockey, pickleball and even chess, the nationwide search is on for anyone over 55 who simply hasn’t stopped playing.
Selected athletes will receive a Rs 25,000 recognition stipend to help with training, equipment, entry fees or travel. They’ll also earn official Walkabout Athlete status, exclusive gear, and a national platform through content features, press interviews, social media spotlights and priority access to Walkabout events across India.
The first cohort will pick 4 to 5 athletes in the initial phase. Applications are open pan-India, with a selection panel judging consistency of participation, community influence, the quality and relatability of each athlete’s story, willingness to engage, and diversity across geography, sport and gender.
Walkabout co-founder and MD, BD and partnerships Ashwini Kapila put it perfectly, “I know a 58-year-old still competing in badminton tournaments. A community member took up athletics at 65. These people are everywhere in India, yet almost none get recognised. India has strong systems to find its next Olympic medallist, we’re building one that finds the 55-year-old who never stopped training. Both matter. Competitive sport doesn’t have to end at 30 or 40.”
The programme builds on Walkabout’s growing momentum in active ageing. In December 2025 the platform hosted its first Walkabout Senior Games in Mumbai (Juhu), followed by the nostalgic Senior Ball Night at Pioneer Hall in Bandra in March 2026. Founded in 2024 by Deval Delivala and Ashwini Kapila (formerly Getsetup India), WalkAbout has raised seed funding from HDFC Bank and partners with names including Raymond Realty, Bblunt, Furtados and Uber.
While India pours resources into spotting young talent, Walkabout is quietly championing the millions of adults over 50 who never left the field. This isn’t about nostalgia alone, it’s about giving late-life athletes the recognition, support and visibility they’ve long earned. Applications are now open for anyone ready to step into the spotlight and show that the game isn’t over until you decide it is.
MAM
Smytten appoints Shishir Varma as CEO of Pulseai Research
Rebranded AI platform scales with 150 plus clients and 30 million users.
MUMBAI: In a world obsessed with what consumers say, Smytten is betting on what they actually do. The company has appointed Shishir Varma as chief executive officer of Pulseai Research, signalling a sharper push into AI-led, behaviour-driven consumer insights. The move comes as Smytten rebrands its insights vertical from Smytten PulseAI to Pulseai Research, marking a shift away from traditional, project-based research towards a more continuous, intelligence-led model.
Varma brings over 30 years of global experience across APAC markets, including India, China and Japan. Most recently managing director, Insights at Kantar Japan, he has built and scaled consumer insight businesses across geographies, including playing a key role in establishing Millward Brown in India. His mandate now: turn Pulseai into a category-defining platform in a space still dominated by surveys and static reports.
The pitch is straightforward but ambitious. Instead of relying on claimed responses, Pulseai Research taps into observed behaviour leveraging Smytten’s ecosystem of 30 million users built over a decade of product discovery, trials and purchases. The idea is to close the long-standing gap between what consumers claim and how they actually behave.
The numbers suggest early traction. In under 18 months, the platform has onboarded over 150 enterprise clients across sectors, pointing to growing demand for faster, more reliable alternatives to legacy research models.
Under the hood, the platform blends behavioural data with AI and large language model-led analysis to deliver real-time sentiment tracking, scalable qualitative insights, faster quantitative studies and always-on brand intelligence. In practical terms, that means compressing research timelines from weeks to days without sacrificing depth.
The ambition extends beyond FMCG. Pulseai Research is positioning itself as a cross-category intelligence layer, spanning auto, education, gadgets and emerging consumer segments anywhere behaviour-rich data can sharpen decision-making.
For Smytten, the leadership hire is less about optics and more about direction. With Varma at the helm, the company is leaning into a simple but powerful premise: in the age of AI, insight isn’t just about asking better questions, it’s about watching more closely.
