iWorld
Airtel Cellular had highest TV ad insertions during ’16 Diwali
BENGALURU: Diwali week in 2016 was week 44 – between Saturday, 29 October 2016 and Friday 4 November 2016. Airtel Cellular Phone Service (Airtel Cellular) was the top advertiser on television as per Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) data of top 10 brands across genre: All India (U+R): 4+ Individuals with 9,370 insertions or spots. Further, Airtel Cellular also had the highest insertions in the week leading to and the after Diwali. For week 43, as per BARC data, Airtel Cellular topped the charts with 9,229 insertions and for week 45 with an even higher 10,387 insertions.
A total number of 83,178; 72,073; and 74,513 ad insertions were shared by the top ten brands in terms of number of insertions per weekin weeks 43, 44 and 45 respectively. Please refer to figure A below for the top 10 brands in terms of TV ad spots.
As is obvious, only FMCG, Mobile (including services) and online brands are in the top 10 list in terms of number of ad insertions in all the three weeks. Week 43 also saw a small presence from auto, jewellery and food brands while week 44 saw the exit of auto brands from the top 10 brands list in terms of number of ad insertions. Week 45 saw jewellery and food brands also exit from the list. Online brands tripled their presence in week 45 in number of brands to three from only one in weeks 43 and 44 as well as in terms of percentage of total number of insertions by the top 10 brands from 9.29 percent and 9.1 percent in weeks 43 and 44 to 28 percent in week 45. Of note is the fact that Patanjali, which was consistently among the top 10 brands in terms of insertions during weeks 40,41 and 42, was absent from the lists in week 43, 44 and 45.
iWorld
Meta plans 8,000 layoffs in new AI-led restructuring wave
First phase from May 20 may cut 10 per cent workforce amid AI pivot.
MUMBAI: At Meta, the future may be artificial but the cuts are very real. The social media giant is reportedly preparing a fresh round of layoffs, with an initial wave expected to impact around 8,000 employees as it doubles down on its artificial intelligence ambitions. According to a Reuters report, the first phase of job cuts is slated to begin on May 20, targeting roughly 10 per cent of Meta’s global workforce. With nearly 79,000 employees on its rolls as of December 31, the move marks one of the company’s most significant workforce reductions in recent years.
And this may only be the beginning. Sources indicate that additional layoffs are being planned for the second half of the year, although the scale and timing remain fluid, likely to be shaped by how Meta’s AI capabilities evolve in the coming months. Earlier reports had suggested that total cuts in 2026 could reach 20 per cent or more of its workforce.
The restructuring comes as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg continues to steer the company towards an AI-first operating model, committing hundreds of billions of dollars to the transition. Internally, this shift is already visible: teams within Reality Labs have been reorganised, engineers have been moved into a newly formed Applied AI unit, and a Meta Small Business division has been created to align with broader structural changes.
The trend is hardly isolated. Across the tech sector, companies are trimming headcount while investing aggressively in automation. Amazon, for instance, has reportedly cut around 30,000 corporate roles nearly 10 per cent of its white-collar workforce citing efficiency gains driven by AI. Data from Layoffs.fyi shows over 73,000 tech employees have already lost jobs this year, compared with 153,000 in all of 2024.
For Meta, the move echoes its earlier “year of efficiency” in 2022–23, when about 21,000 roles were eliminated amid slowing growth and market pressures. This time, however, the backdrop is different. The company is financially stronger, generating over $200 billion in revenue and $60 billion in profit last year, with shares up 3.68 per cent year-to-date though still below last summer’s peak.
That contrast underlines the shift underway. These layoffs are less about survival and more about reinvention. As Meta restructures itself around AI from autonomous coding agents to advanced machine learning systems, the question is no longer whether the company will change, but how many roles will be left unchanged when it does.
