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Asianet News Media & Entertainment hires Nachiket Pantvaidya as MD
KOLKATA: Asianet News Media & Entertainment Pvt Ltd (AMEL) has roped in media veteran Nachiket Pantvaidya as managing director. AMEL has multiple digital brands in its portfolio including asianetnews.com, indigomusic.com etc and serves consumers in multiple languages
Pantvaidya was the group chief operating officer of Balaji Telefilms and CEO of ALTBalaji. After joining the SVoD platform in December 2015, he scaled it to be amongst the leading players in the country. Under his leadership, the company grew to be recognised as one of India’s Top 100 most-admired brands of 2020 by White Page International.
Pantvaidya oversaw the P&L department of the company and also its content, marketing, distribution and revenues.
AMEL executive chairman Rajesh Kalra said: “I am delighted to welcome a leader like Nachiket to the AMEL family. With his background and significant achievements to boot, he adds significantly to the capability of this wonderful team that is poised to take a leadership position in all its areas of functioning.”
During his career spanning 15+ years, Pantvaidya has been a part of some of the most renowned companies in the entertainment industry and has held prime leadership positions at Sony Entertainment Television, Star Plus, Star Pravahand Fox Television Studios. His career includes working with industry leaders like Disney and BBC as well.
eNews
PNB partners Kiwi to launch credit-enabled UPI for users
Targets 180 million customers; RuPay card offers 0.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent cashback
MUMBAI: Swipe, tap, or scan credit is quietly slipping into the rhythm of everyday payments, and Punjab National Bank wants in on the action. The state-run lender has partnered with Kiwi to roll out credit-enabled UPI payments for its 180 million customers, marking a significant push to blend traditional banking with India’s fast-evolving digital payments ecosystem.
At the centre of the collaboration is the launch of the PNB Kiwi Credit Card on the RuPay network. The card is designed with a digital-first approach, offering fully online onboarding and seamless integration with UPI, allowing users to transact via scan-and-pay while accessing credit.
The offering also brings in a rewards layer, with cashback ranging from 0.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent on online transactions, positioning the product as both a convenience play and a spending incentive.
The move comes as UPI continues to dominate India’s digital payments landscape, increasingly blurring the lines between debit-led transactions and credit access. For PNB, which operates over 10,000 branches around 60 per cent in semi-urban and rural areas, the partnership signals a targeted effort to extend formal credit to segments that have traditionally remained underserved.
The collaboration also reflects a broader industry shift, where banks and fintech platforms are converging to embed credit directly into payment flows, reducing friction while expanding access.
With RuPay credit cards gaining traction and UPI evolving beyond peer-to-peer transfers, the PNB–Kiwi tie-up positions both players at the intersection of scale, accessibility, and the next phase of digital finance in India.
