For some reason which is not quite clear as far as the executive role of elected representative is concerned, the Prime Minister of India walked about with peacock feathers, then got into a diving suit and sat at the bottom of the seabed on a red carpet.
The usual media frenzy ensued. However, there was no clarity on the issue. Some said he went scuba diving to promote underwater tourism in Gujarat. Others said he went to pray. Others said he offered peacock feathers (not sure to whom exactly) and meditated. Others said it was some sort of an exploration to see the ancient submerged ruins of Dwarka. Others said the idea was to offer prayers at a submerged temple.
My own feeling is that the Public Relations organisation in charge of this event sent different releases to different people. Even though I am long retired from active journalism, some sweet and kindly PR companies still send me releases for “opportunities” to interview or better “interact” with some famous person I have never heard of or even better exclusive authored curated something, I may have got the order of the words wrong because I don’t quite get current PR speak. Anyway, my point is that all the newsrooms may have received separate, individual, curated, authored press releases – praying, meditating, promoting, divining, feathering and so on.
I feel this is a very clever election to keep the media distracted from reality and in a high state of constant suspense – What will He do next – and excitement – Can you believe He did something so wonderful.
A few cynics – particularly the evil anti-national type who still lurk about at the edges – claim that this entire stunt sorry I mean brave and exciting adventure was a response to this:
Dhruv Rathee is an independent commentator on Youtube. His videos are usually on politics. This particular commentary is on why he thinks India is vast edging towards a North Korea-like dictatorship and speeding away from being a democracy. It was got over 12 lakh likes and has been viewed by 1,3126,342 as of February 22, 2024.
Rathee has not minced his words on India’s current situation and nor has he spared the Honourable Prime Minister and the BJP.
It is intriguing however to conjecture that to counter a strong critical voice which sees shades of North Korea in the behaviour of those at the top, some Public Relations Expert decided that to try something which Kim Jong Un might be jealous of!
Don’t laugh! Instead, admire them for knowing their audience.
Because what is happening in India above the water only seems to prove Rathee’s points. A judge of the Calcutta High Court wasted precious time over what seemed to be an absurd case over the naming of lions. Because one was called Akbar (Muslim), and the other Sita (Hindu name, commonly given to girls, and of epic significance), the judge ordered the lions to be renamed and the Tripura government suspended the forest officer who had named the lions.
Idiotic as this whole episode seems, it points to the consistent atmosphere of official Islamophobia in the BJP and Modi’s India. This underlying theme since 2014 has stopped being the focus of discussion and media interest, and thus attempts to destroy lives and livelihoods of Muslims have only increased.
That the Prime Minister’s PR stunt was about Hindu prayers only strengthens that intent.
A professor of politics and international relations at the University of Westminster is not allowed to enter India. Nitasha Kaul was invited by the Karnataka government to attend a convention on the Constitution and National Unity. However she was detained at Bengaluru Airport and deported to London. Kaul was been a consistent critic of the Modi government.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/harrowing-experience-who-is-nitasha-kaul-indian-origin-professor-denied-entry-to-india/articleshow/108014822.cms
BJP supporters in India have mocked Rathee because he does not live in India. But as one can see from Kaul’s experience, criticism of PM ji has its consequences.
Goodness, I almost feel admiration now for the cowardice of the Indian media. Maybe it’s just survival??
Hah!
Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She writes on MxMIndia on Tuesdays and Fridays. Her views here are personal.
As high as 86% of internet users in India, that is 707 Mn people, enjoy OTT audio and video services, making it the top use-case for internet in the country. These numbers were revealed by the ‘Internet in India Report 2023’, jointly prepared by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and Kantar, the leading marketing data and analytics company.
The report was released by Harsh Jain, Chairman, IAMAI, and CEO and Co-founder Dream Sports, at the inaugural session of the two-day India Digital Summit 2024, being held in Mumbai (Feb 27 and 28). “‘Internet in India’, which is based on the ICUBE 2023 study, covering over 90,000 households across all states and Union Territories of India (barring Lakshadweep), is the most comprehensive survey of internet usage in the country,” he said.
Puneet Awasthi, Director, Specialist Businesses, Insights, South Asia – Business Development, Kantar, India, presented the key figures of the report.
The rise of digital entertainment services is also bolstered by the rise of non-traditional devices (smart TV, smart speakers, Firesticks, Chromecasts, Blue-Ray etc) that has witnessed a growth of 58% between 2021-23 at all India level. The adoption is driven by the new generation ‘cordcutters’ as for the first time, there are more people accessing video content over internet only devices (208Mn) than over conventional linear TV (181Mn).
Other top use-cases of internet in the country are communications, with 621Mn users, and social media with 575Mn users. These are the second and third most popular services availed by Indian internet users. OTT refers to audio/video streaming either from subscribed or user-generated content UGC platforms while Communication refers to text/ voice/ video chat or used email, video conferencing, etc. using an online website or app in the last one year.
The report points out that users from rural India are driving all these use-cases, accounting for more than 50% of the user base for each use case.
The growing internet penetration in India surpassed a new milestone of 800Mn as total Active Internet Users reached 820MN in 2023, meaning more than 55% of Indians have used internet last year. Internet penetration grew across the nation at a modest 8% YoY. Rural India (442 Mn) is a clear majority accounting for over ~53% of the total user base.
From a Male:Female ratio of 71:29 in 2015 we have reached 54:46 in recent times, which is almost at par with the overall sex ratio of the addressable population in the country.
Reading between the lines the report reveals that the growth has decelerated in both urban and rural areas. Rural India, which has been driving internet growth rates for the last many years has been witnessing a slowdown lately (11% YoY), effectively in the post pandemic period, that is lowering overall growth rates (8% YoY). However, while the growth rate has slowed down, in terms of actual numbers it is still phenomenal, since 8 per cent and 11 percent in a base of over 800 million are huge numbers.
One of the ways to accelerate the growth may be to focus on Indic languages which shows a healthy sign of growth in some states. The report finds that 57% users prefer to access content in Indic languages, with languages such as Tamil, Telegu and Malayalam having the strongest language preference for content.
Finally, it is also a matter of great optimism that states with the lowest internet user base is also showing signs of highest growth rates. States such as Jharkhand (46% penetration) and Bihar (37% penetration) are showing above average growth rates of 12% and 17% respectively.
For a copy of the full report please visit: thought-leadership | India Digital Summit.
1. Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), Viacom 18 Media Private Limited (Viacom18) and The Walt Disney Company (Disney) announced on Wednesday the signing of binding definitive agreements to form a joint venture that will combine the businesses of Viacom18 and Star India. As part of the transaction, the media undertaking of Viacom18 will be merged into Star India Private Limited (SIPL) through a court-approved scheme of arrangement.
2. The Board of Directors of the Company, at its meeting held on Wednesday, approved primary investment of Rs 11,500 crore (~US$ 4 billion) in Star India Private Limited (SIPL) to acquire 16.34% of the paid up equity share capital of SIPL in terms of the subscription agreement between the Company and SIPL. SIPL was incorporated on February 8, 1994. The turnover of SIPL, as per its audited standalone financial statement, for financial years 2022-23, 2021-22 and 2020-21 was Rs 17,332.78 crore, Rs 15,500.77 crore and Rs 11,761.90 crore, respectively.
3. The transaction values the JV at ₹70,352 crore (~US$ 8.5 billion) on a post-money basis, excluding Post completion of the above steps, the JV will be controlled by Reliance Industries (RIL) and owned 16.34% by RIL, 46.82% by Viacom18 and 36.84% by Disney. Disney may also contribute certain additional media assets to the JV, subject to regulatory and third-party approvals. Currently, Paramount also has 13% stake in Viacom18, but there are rumours that it may exit the venture in some time.
4. Uday Shankar and James Murdoch (Lupa Systems) own Bodhi Tree Systems which owns 13% of Viacom18.
5. Nita M Ambani will be the Chairperson of the JV, with Uday Shankar as Vice Chairperson providing strategic guidance to the JV.
6. Disney to provide content licence to the joint The JV see the coming together of the linear TV and digital streaming properties from both stables. That is: Star Plus, Colors, Star Sports and Sports18. All the regional channels.
7. Jio Cinema and Hotstar are likely to be merged.
8. The JV will have over 750 million viewers across India and will also cater to the Indian diaspora across the world. So basically it will be the combination of the media expertise, cutting-edge technology and diverse content libraries of Viacom18 and Star Plus the domestic and global entertainment content and sports livestreaming services. Also. Disney’s films and shows to Viacom18’s renowned productions and sports offerings. The JV will also be granted exclusive rights to distribute Disney films and productions in India, with a licence to more than 30,000 Disney content assets, providing a full suite of entertainment options for the Indian consumer.
9. The transaction is subject to regulatory, shareholder and other customary approvals and is expected to be completed in the last quarter of Calendar Year 2024 or first quarter of Calendar Year 2025. This includes the all-important clearances from the Competition Commission of India (CCI).
10. The news operations of Reliance Industries (under Network18 Media & Investments Limited) are not part of this deal.
OTT platforms are growing significantly in various regional languages across India, said Sanjay Jaju, Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, at the India Digital Summit (IDS) 2024, in Mumbai, on Wednesday. In his keynote address, he pointed out that there were over 60 OTT platforms in India out which 30 per cent OTT Originals were operating in regional languages. The number is expected to go up to 50 per cent this year. The session was moderated by Vivek Malhotra, Group CMO & COO, Consumer Revenue, India Today Group.
Jaju also said that the media and entertainment sector was a huge sector and played a pivotal role in the Indian economy. “It’s been growing phenomenally at a rate of 20 per cent and is approximately Rs 2 lakh crore. In that, the digital media segment is the second largest sub-segment, and has been showing a growth of approximately 30 per cent — around Rs 60,000 crore — and the film segment has a 25 per cent growth rate,” he said. Sharing data he added that over 200 films were released on the digital platforms in the last year, including 75 films which were released directly on the digital platform without a theatrical release.
Regarding the growth of the digital gaming industry, Jaju said: “The online gaming industry has been growing by 34 per cent and animation and VFX have close to around 30 percent growth rate, expected to become a $2 billion industry by 2025.”
Jaju also announced some new initiatives that the government is taking to provide a boost to the media and entertainment sector in India. These include the setting up of a National Centre of Excellence in Maharashtra to create world class media talent and an incentive scheme to attract international projects. He pointed out that, this would help the industry undertake a lot of co-production treaties with multiple countries and create a number of audiovisual co-productions.
IDS 2024 was being organised by IAMAI in partnership with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB), the Union Ministry of Tourism, UIDAI, Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C), Government eMarketplace, In-Space and Skill India Digital.
At the IAMAI’s India Digital Summit 2024 held in Mumbai earlier this week, a panel discussed the challenge for digital marketers lies in navigating personalisation and measurement in a post-cookies era. Those on the panel included Shuvadip Banerjee, Chief Digital Marketing Officer, ITC; Shashank Srivastava, Senior Executive Officer, Maruti Suzuki India; Arnaud Frade, President, Commercial – (Asia), Nielsen and Mohit Joshi, Chief Executive Officer, Havas Media Network India. The session was moderated by Vivek Malhotra, Group Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Operating Officer – Consumer Revenue, India Today Group.
Highlights of what the panelists said:
Srivastava: “In earlier times, this understanding of the customer relied on sampling, market research, and analysis of demographics and psychographics. However, the abundance of data and advanced technologies now allow for a significantly more personalised approach to customer insights. Maruti Suzuki’s sustained market dominance, holding approximately 45% market share over four decades, stems from aligning with evolving consumer behaviours and processes. Extensively researched, the car purchasing journey involves 26 touchpoints, 24 of which Maruti Suzuki has seamlessly digitised. Aspects like test drives and delivery are transitioning to digital.”
Frade: “Technological advancement also generates vast amounts of data, which must be leveraged more effectively. The challenge lies in obtaining precise, high-quality data that empowers marketers, brand owners, and other stakeholders to make informed decisions. In this rapidly evolving landscape, understanding the changing dynamics of the shopper journey is paramount. The proliferation of mobile technology and diverse forms of commerce has fundamentally altered how consumers engage with brands. We are witnessing a transition from discrete ‘moments of truth’ to a continuous journey, where decision-making occurs at various touchpoints. Marketers must excel not only at the final interaction but throughout the entire marketing funnel.”
Banerjee: “The marketing landscape has evolved, with real-time multi-touch attribution and market mix models becoming commonplace, aiding investment allocation. Despite lacking a unified media measurement standard, metrics like scroll depth on owned assets and engagement within communities offer insights into consumer behaviour. Additionally, distinguishing between always-on and start-stop campaigns and measuring baseline improvements helps gauge campaign effectiveness. Despite the abundance of data, the challenge lies in harnessing it effectively to inform decision-making and optimise campaign impact across different funnel stages and mediums.”
Joshi: “At Havas, we’re addressing this challenge of misinterpreting data head-on. We aim to refine our approach to a market mix model and ensure clients receive accurate input-output assessments. While data is invaluable, we must ensure it guides us in the right direction. By striking a balance between bottom-of-the-funnel optimisation and top-of-the-funnel investment, we can sustainably drive acquisition and growth. The key is to navigate the complexities of data and maximise its potential to drive client success.”
The much-awaited IPO R K Swamy Limited will open Monday, March 4, 2024. The Initial Public Offering (IPO) of up to equity shares of face value of Rs 5 each (Equity Shares) for cash at a price band from Rs 270 to Rs 288 per equity share. Bids can be made for a minimum of 50 equity shares and in multiples of 50 equity shares thereafter.
The bid/offer will close on Wednesday, March 6, 2024.
As per a communique, the net proceeds from the issue are proposed to be used as follows: Funding working capital requirements of the Company Rs 540 million; Funding capital expenditure to be incurred by the company for setting up a digital video content production studio: Rs 109.85 million; Funding investment in IT infrastructure development of the Company, and Material Subsidiaries, Hansa Research Group Private Limited and Hansa Customer Equity Private Limited: Rs 333.42 million, and funding setting up of new customer experience centres and computer aided telephonic interview centres of the company: Rs 217.36 million. And general corporate purposes.
Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited has announced the appointment of Prasanna Kotian as the new Head – Group Corporate Communication to oversee and drive external and internal communications for the Kotak group of companies. Prior to joining Kotak, Kotian led corporate communications for Visa across India and South Asia.
Said Rohit Bhasin, President – Retail Liabilities Product and Chief Marketing Officer, Kotak Mahindra Bank: “We welcome Prasanna Kotian to the group marketing and communication team. His experience and leadership will be instrumental in strengthening our brand and fostering effective communication with all our stakeholders.”
Added Kotian: “I am excited to join Kotak at an interesting time when the company is focussed on transformative change across the Group. I look forward to collaborating with the talented team here to enhance our corporate communication strategies and stakeholder communications helping strengthen the organisation’s reputation across our key stakeholders.”
Hashtag Orange, a leading digital native advertising agency, has announced the appointment of Gaurang Menon as its Regional Creative Head for the West region.
As Hashtag Orange expands its footprint from Gurgaon to Mumbai, there is a heightened focus on the western region, notes a communique.
Said Mukesh Vij, Founder of Hashtag Orange: “I am glad to welcome Gaurang Menon back to the Hashtag Orange team. I am confident that Gaurang’s leadership will play a pivotal role in driving our growth objectives forward. His strategic vision, coupled with his creative prowess, will undoubtedly elevate our efforts as we continue to innovate and expand in the dynamic digital advertising landscape.”
Amit Shankar, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer at Hashtag Orange, echoed the same sentiment, stating: “I am thrilled to have Gaurang back on board, with even greater expertise and a fresh perspective that is sure to invigorate our team. His wealth of experience and creative acumen will play an invaluable role in elevating our strategies to new heights. Together, we will work on pushing boundaries, innovating, and delivering exceptional results for our clients.”