iWorld
Kevin Vaz honoured as the Media Person of the Year at the 12th IAA Leadership Awards 2025
MUMBAI: The 12th edition of the IAA Leadership Awards, held in Mumbai last evening, celebrated excellence across marketing, advertising, and media with Kevin Vaz, CEO – Entertainment, JioStar, receiving the coveted Media Person of the Year title. Organised by the International Advertising Association (IAA) India Chapter, the awards honour individuals whose leadership, creativity, and vision have left a lasting impact on the industry.
“I’m truly humbled and grateful to receive this recognition. It’s a special moment for me, especially as I complete close to 30 years in this industry that I’ve quite literally grown up with. A heartfelt thank you to the International Advertising Association for this honour. IAA has always championed excellence and innovation across our industry and I’m proud to be recognised by an organisation that has played such an important role in shaping the media and marketing landscape.” said Kevin Vaz on receiving the award.
With nearly three decades of experience in the Media & Entertainment sector, Kevin has been instrumental in driving growth, strategic expansion, and innovation across television, OTT, and films. At JioStar, he leads the entertainment business for both the network and JioHotstar, scaling revenues, expanding market share, and integrating content creation with monetisation. His career spans leadership roles at Star India, Viacom18 and Disney Star, where he launched and shaped language markets, and spearheaded industry-first strategies.
iWorld
What SMS letters G, T, S and P mean and how they help spot scams
Small alphabet tags on messages reveal whether texts are government or ads.
MUMBAI: Sometimes the smallest letter in a message can be the biggest clue. In an age where smartphone users receive dozens of alerts every day, the tiny alphabet appearing at the end of many SMS messages can reveal whether a text is official, transactional, service related or simply promotional. Understanding these tags can help users quickly identify legitimate messages and stay alert to potential scams.
Under telecom regulations in India, SMS senders are required to categorise messages based on their purpose. As a result, many texts end with a single letter that indicates the type of communication being sent.
If an SMS ends with the letter G, it typically means the message has been sent by a government authority. These alerts may include information about public services, government schemes, safety advisories or emergency notifications such as natural disaster warnings.
A message ending with the letter T signals a transactional SMS. These are usually sent by banks, financial institutions or digital services to confirm activities such as payments, account updates or one time passwords (OTPs).
The letter S represents a service related message. These notifications commonly come from companies and online platforms providing updates about services or orders. For instance, e commerce platforms like Amazon or Flipkart often send delivery updates and order confirmations that end with the letter S.
Meanwhile, SMS messages ending with the letter P are promotional in nature. These texts are typically marketing communications sent by businesses advertising products, offers or services such as education programmes, fashion sales or loan schemes.
Understanding these simple tags can also help users stay cautious about fraudulent messages. Cybersecurity experts note that scam messages often do not follow these regulated formats and may arrive without any category letter at the end.
While the absence of a tag does not automatically mean a message is fraudulent, it can serve as an early warning sign encouraging users to verify the source before clicking links or sharing personal information.
For those who wish to reduce marketing texts altogether, telecom operators also provide Do Not Disturb (DND) options.
Users of Jio can activate DND through the MyJio app by navigating to the menu, selecting settings and enabling the DND option with preferred filters.
Similarly, subscribers of Airtel and Vi can enable the same feature through their respective mobile apps to block promotional messages.
In a digital world flooded with alerts and notifications, recognising what a single letter means could make the difference between a harmless update and a potential scam.
