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LinkedIn appoints Nishant K Rao as country manager
MUMBAI: LinkedIn has appointed Nishant K Rao as the new Country Manager for India.
Rao‘s appointment at LinkedIn India comes following the promotion of former country manager Hari V Krishnan into a larger role as managing director of Asia Pacific and Japan.
In his new role, Rao will focus on scaling up operations and staying committed to LinkedIn‘s value proposition of connecting India‘s professionals to make them more successful and productive and helping enterprises hire, market and sell effectively, the company said.
Rao said, "With a member base of 18 million professionals, India is one of our fastest growing markets and the largest outside of the US. Indian marketers and recruiters are fast realising the potential of LinkedIn‘s affluent member base and are leveraging the platform for targeted and thought leadership oriented campaigns. I am excited about the opportunity to work with the LinkedIn India team to serve our customers and members in India."
Prior to being appointed as LinkedIn India‘s Country Manager, Rao was director, business operations – head of global sales strategy at LinkedIn‘s headquarters in Mountain View.
He has been with LinkedIn since September 2011.
Rao has over 10 years of industry experience with a healthy mix of sales, strategy management and entrepreneurship. He has held leadership positions with companies such as McKinsey and ARIBA Inc and was also one of the founding members of Epicentre Technologies, one amongst India‘s first call centers.
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With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
