3, Feb 2026
Budget 2026 Boosts Emotional Wellbeing and Tech-Driven Healthcare, Says coto CEO
Tarun Katial, Founder & CEO at coto
“The Union Budget 2026 marks an important shift in how India is re-imagining healthcare and human development. By reinforcing preventive healthcare, holistic wellbeing and early intervention, the Budget creates space to recognise emotional and mental wellbeing as a foundational pillar of long-term health and quality of life.
The articulation of the government’s third core kartavya aligns with the vision of “Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas” towards a Viksit Bharat, and its explicit focus on empowering vulnerable communities to access mental health and trauma care is a significant and timely acknowledgement of emotional well-being as an inclusion priority.
Equally important is the government’s forward-looking approach to technology, including the announcement of a high-powered committee to assess the impact of artificial intelligence on the services sector. This reflects a clear intent to enable responsible, technology-led innovation.
Together, these policy directions create an enabling environment for platforms like coto to expand access to emotional wellness through human-centred, digitally delivered and ethically designed solutions that support individual resilience and societal wellbeing.”
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- By Neel Achary
3, Feb 2026
St. Joseph’s School Celebrates 25 Glorious Years with Spectacular AgLumina Festival
Feb 3: St. Joseph’s School, Asmangadh Palace, Malakpet, Hyderabad, celebrated its Silver Jubilee Annual Cultural Festival, AgLumina — Illuminating Talent, Celebrating Excellence, at GSR Conventions, Hasthinapuram. The two-day festival stood as a fitting reflection of the institution’s legacy built over 25 years of dedicated service.
The programme commenced on Saturday, 31st January, 2026 with a welcome address by the Principal, Mrs. U. A. Sundari, who briefly outlined the significance of the Silver Jubilee celebrations and the school’s journey over the years. The Chief Guest for the day was Dr. K. S. Jawahar Reddy, IAS (Retd.), Chief Secretary (Retd.), Government of Andhra Pradesh, who addressed the gathering and appreciated the school’s consistent academic and co-curricular growth. The event was also graced by the presence of Shri M. Anil Kumar, IRS, Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, AP & Telangana Region.
The celebrations continued on Sunday, 1 February 2026 with the blessings of Rev. Msgr. Yeruva Balashowreddy, Vicar General, Archdiocese of Hyderabad.
The Chief Guest for the day was Prof. Dr. V. Balakista Reddy, Chairman, Telangana Higher Education Council (TGCHE).
Mrs. Dhatri Reddy, IAS, CEO, Ratan Tata Innovation Hub, Government of Andhra Pradesh, and an alumna of St. Joseph’s School, attended as Guest of Honour.
The event gained further distinction through the gracious attendance of Shri T. Vijay Kumar Reddy, Indian Information Service (IIS), eminent civil servant and distinguished administrator, and U Alexander Reddy, Secretary, St. Anthony’s Education Society, across both days of the celebration. Parent representatives of the School Cabinet were also invited as the special guests on the occasion.
Students from various classes presented cultural performances spread across the two days. A special highlight of the programme was the dance drama by the students of Grade 9, “A Vision That Became a Legacy,” tracing the journey of the founder and the growth of the institution from its inception to its present standing. Gold medals were awarded to the school’s ICSE Board Examination 2025 toppers and class wise proficiency winners, acknowledging their scholastic achievements.
The Silver Jubilee Annual Cultural Festival, AgLumina, concluded on a high note, embodying the event’s motto of illuminating talent and celebrating excellence. As gold medals gleamed under the lights and applause echoed for the students’ stellar performances, the event not only honoured 25 years of transformative education but also inspired a new generation to carry forward this illustrious legacy with pride and passion.
3, Feb 2026
What Remains Awake: Dream, Depth & the Fourth – Sonika Agarwal Solo Exhibition Preview
The preview of What Remains Awake: Dream, Depth & the Fourth (Jagrat · Swapna · Sushupti · Turiya), a solo exhibition by Sonika Agarwal, was held on Friday, 30 January 2026, at Kalamkar Gallery, Bikaner House, New Delhi. The event was attended by artists, curators, collectors, and members of the cultural community.
The opening was led by Ms. Uma Jain, Director of Dhoomimal Gallery, as Chief Guest. Special Guests included H.E. Ms. Mahishini Colonne, High Commission of Sri Lanka, and Shri M. Sovan Kumar, Regional Secretary, Lalit Kala Akademi.
The exhibition explores consciousness through four traditional Indian states of awareness—waking, dreaming, deep sleep, and the fourth state. Rather than representing these states directly, Sonika Agarwal interprets them through abstract forms, colour, and spatial composition.
Working across painting, sculpture, and installation, the artist moves beyond the traditional canvas. Her use of colour shifts with light and time, inviting viewers to slow down and engage deeply in today’s fast-paced world.
Curated under the guidance of Myna Mukherjee, the exhibition emphasizes inner reflection and awareness. Sculptural works add depth to the show, exploring themes of desire, silence, power, and compassion.
A self-taught artist with over seventeen years of experience, Sonika Agarwal has exhibited widely in India and internationally. She is a recipient of the National Stree Shakti Award from the President of India, and her works have been recently acquired by the Museum of Sacred Arts (MoSA), Belgium.
What Remains Awake encourages viewers to reflect on their own consciousness, offering a quiet, contemplative experience beyond the rush of everyday life.
3, Feb 2026
US Tariff Cut Boosts India’s Solar Exports: Saatvik CEO
Mr. Prashant Mathur, CEO of Saatvik Green Energy,
“The U.S. decision to reduce tariffs on Indian goods from 25% to 18%, along with the elimination of the additional punitive levy, represents a strategic turning point for the solar sector, rather than just a routine policy change.”
He noted that “India’s solar exports, which include solar cells and solar modules, have already reached billions of dollars, making the United States our most important foreign market.” The seven-percentage-point reduction in tariffs significantly enhances the cost-competitiveness of Indian-made solar cells and modules. This improvement will make projects more profitable for U.S. developers and create a substantial new demand for high-efficiency, Made-in-India products in the coming years.
“This change also strengthens the case for supply chains that are open and reliable. It alleviates long-standing concerns about Chinese producers circumventing tariffs and positions India as a credible and dependable alternative manufacturing base that aligns with U.S. trade and industrial objectives. For companies like Saatvik, this transforms the U.S. market from being high-risk to one full of opportunities, emphasizing the need to accelerate investments, upgrade technology, and establish long-term, bankable partnerships with American utilities and developers.”
3, Feb 2026
Reinventing a Legacy Brand in the Digital Age
For many heritage brands, history can feel less like a foundation and more like an anchor. In an era of rapid technological change and evolving consumer habits, sticking to “business as usual” often leads to irrelevance. To thrive, these iconic brands must execute a Legacy Pivot—a strategic shift that embraces a digital-first approach while honoring their heritage. By focusing on four key principles—utility, speed, design, and connectivity—legacy brands can evolve from local favorites into global digital leaders.
The Utility Shift: From Niche Products to Lifestyle Emotions
Legacy brands often struggle with shrinking niches. When a brand is strongly tied to a single product that no longer holds daily relevance, it must expand into broader lifestyle categories. The goal is to transform occasional purchases into daily interactions.
For example, a traditional greeting card company might expand into home décor and everyday stationery. The most significant transition, however, is moving from product-centric to emotion-driven marketing. Today’s consumers invest in the feelings and experiences a brand evokes, not just the products.
A tiered strategy can help: offering entry-level digital products for younger audiences while maintaining premium physical collectibles for dedicated enthusiasts. This ensures relevance across demographics.
The Velocity Shift: Redefining Distribution and Speed
In the digital era, “how fast” a brand delivers is as crucial as “what” it delivers. Legacy brands must move from traditional operations to agile, consumer-centric models.
Quick commerce, micro-warehouses, and “dark stores” can enable sub-30-minute deliveries. Meanwhile, phygital strategies position physical stores as experience hubs while digital channels handle fast transactions.
Building proprietary Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) platforms allows brands to eliminate intermediaries and retain full ownership of customer data—the modern “oil” fueling growth.
The Aesthetic Shift: Modernizing the Visual Narrative
“Brand fatigue” is a growing challenge for heritage brands. To stay relevant, brands must modernize visually and tonally, appealing to younger audiences without losing their identity.
This includes clean, aesthetic designs suited for social media and nostalgia-driven storytelling to engage older millennials. Strategic collaborations with influencers or “cool” brands can bridge generational gaps and borrow cultural capital.
The Connectivity Shift: Global Reach through Data and Tech
Digital transformation enables brands to expand globally without costly physical expansion. Data-driven personalization shifts marketing from mass campaigns to tailored experiences powered by AI and CRM insights.
Participation in open platforms, such as ONDC, ensures brands remain visible wherever customers search, capturing every moment of consumer intent.
The Transformation Matrix: From Legacy to Digital
This evolution changes every core pillar of business. Inventory shifts from slow-moving, product-specific stocks to fast-moving, lifestyle-oriented offerings. Stores no longer wait for customers—they deliver directly, sometimes within ten minutes.
Marketing transforms from nostalgic storytelling to aesthetics-driven dialogues supported by influencers. Most importantly, brands shift from local or community-based operations to borderless, global entities.
Reinventing a legacy brand doesn’t mean abandoning its history. It means translating enduring values into a digital language, ensuring relevance, resilience, and vitality for the next century.
3, Feb 2026
GCPL Welcomes MAT Credit Relief in New Tax Regime
Mr Sudhir Sitapati, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd.
“We particularly welcome the MAT credit set-off being allowed up to 25% of the tax liability under the new tax regime. This move improves cash flows and makes the new tax regime smoother for companies with accumulated credits, freeing up capital for reinvestment into growth and consumption-led categories”
3, Feb 2026
Evocus enters into a strategic partnership contract with Sober & Co for its mixers
As part of the partnership, Evocus will take over distribution across all channels, offline retail, e-commerce, and on-trade, while Sober & Co. will continue to independently manage production and product development. The collaboration is designed to significantly strengthen Sober & Co’s market presence, which currently has about a 1000 retail touch points across India.
Through Evocus’s robust distribution network and deep market reach, Sober & Co. ‘s mixer range is expected to expand rapidly across key markets in India, making the brand more accessible to consumers nationwide.
Commenting on the partnership, Clavell Santiago VP – HoReCa Sales and Marketing, Evocus said,
“This partnership allows us to strengthen our basket offering and add greater value to our customers and partners. Sober & Co aligns strongly with our focus on clean-label, high-quality beverages, and we see a strong synergy between our portfolios.”
The association marks a strategic step for Evocus as it continues to identify and collaborate with brands that complement its positioning in the functional and premium beverage space.
Sharaan Kripalani, Founder/CEO of Sober & Co added,
“Partnering with Evocus enables us to scale faster and reach a wider audience across India, while allowing us to stay focused on product quality, product innovation, and operations.”
Evocus will be the exclusive distribution partner for the mixers offered by Sober & Co in India. While the company is evaluating similar opportunities, it continues to remain selective, working only with brands that share a strong strategic and portfolio fit.
3, Feb 2026
Bharti AXA Life Insurance and Equitas Small Finance Bank Announce Strategic Bancassurance Partnership
Mumbai, Feb 3: Bharti AXA Life Insurance, a subsidiary of Bharti Life Ventures Private Limited (Bharti Group Company), has entered into a strategic bancassurance partnership with Equitas Small Finance Bank. The partnership marks a significant step toward deepening life insurance penetration across India, especially within semi-urban and rural markets.
Through this partnership, Bharti AXA Life Insurance will offer its range of protection, savings and retirement plans to customers of Equitas Small Finance Bank, enabling financial security and long-term wealth planning for individuals and families across India. Customers can access these solutions seamlessly through Equitas SFB’s robust network spanning over 1,042 banking outlets across 18 states and Union Territories, with a strong footprint in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra
Commenting on the partnership, Mr. Nitin Mehta, Chief Distribution Officer – Partnership Distribution and Head Marketing, Bharti AXA Life Insurance, said:
“Equitas Small Finance Bank has built a strong and differentiated franchise with a proven track record in serving underbanked, semi-urban, and rural communities through its wide branch network and digital capabilities. We are pleased to partner with the Bank, as this collaboration will further strengthen our partnership distribution footprint and enable us to reach customers at scale through its extensive phygital presence. The partnership aligns with our objective of simplifying insurance and making it more accessible, while also supporting IRDAI’s vision of ‘Insurance for All’ by 2047.”
Speaking on the collaboration, Mr. Murali Vaidyanathan, Senior President & Country Head – Liabilities, Wealth Management and Digital Banking, Equitas Small Finance Bank, said:
“Enhancing the quality and breadth of services we offer to our customers remains a key priority for us, and this partnership with Bharti AXA Life Insurance is a step in that direction. Through this collaboration, we are strengthening our product portfolio by providing customers access to a comprehensive range of life insurance solutions that complement their banking needs and long-term financial planning requirements.”
By combining Equitas Small Finance Bank’s distribution strength with Bharti AXA Life Insurance’s life insurance expertise, the partnership aims to drive wider adoption of life insurance and strengthen long-term financial preparedness among customers.
3, Feb 2026
JS Auto Cast, a Bharat Forge subsidiary, secures Rs 300 Crores investment from Premji Invest
Pune, India, Feb 03: JS Auto Cast Foundry India Private Limited (JSA), a 100% wholly owned step-down subsidiary of Bharat Forge Limited and a leading supplier of critical ferrous castings for industrial and automotive applications, has successfully raised equity of Rs. 300 crores from Premji Invest (PI) through a primary infusion into the company. Post the infusion, Premji Invest will hold a 23% stake in JSA on a fully diluted basis.
The capital will be utilised to accelerate JSA’s growth by expanding its casting capacity, investing in medium casting capabilities, and consolidating the industry through strategic acquisitions.
Commenting on the partnership, Amit Kalyani, Vice Chairman & Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge, said:
“Since acquiring JSA in 2022, the company has delivered excellent financial performance, with topline, exports and profitability growing at a CAGR of 17%, 24% and 25% respectively, while also enhancing its product mix and customer base. We are delighted to partner with Premji Invest, a renowned and highly respected investor, in the next phase of JSA’s growth journey.”
Manoj Jaiswal, Partner, Premji Invest, who leads the firm’s Industrials and Buyout investments, said:
“We are excited to partner with Bharat Forge, a premier engineering and manufacturing conglomerate in the country. Collaborating with leading conglomerates on their growth and consolidation journey is one of our strategic pillars. Through our investment in JSA, we look forward to jointly building a leading ferrous casting platform in the country.”
The completion of the transaction is subject to customary conditions. PwC Investment Banking acted as the sole financial advisor to Bharat Forge Limited.
3, Feb 2026
Ajitesh Korupolu: Driving Tech-Led Innovation in Indian Real Estate
By:- Ajitesh Korupolu, Founder and CEO, ASBL
Mr. Ajitesh Korupolu, an Indian real estate leader and visionary entrepreneur, wields his expertise to drive strategic initiatives and foster growth in the industry. As the Founder and CEO of ASBL, he has transformed the company from a promising startup into a market leader in Hyderabad. With over a decade of experience, he has carved a niche by revolutionizing construction and project management through robust technological backend systems.
Under Mr. Ajitesh’s leadership, ASBL has successfully planned over 8million sq. ft. of residential projects, with annual sales rising from Rs. 1,250 crores in 2022 to Rs. 2,200 crores in 2023. He embodies the epitome of real estate innovation, blending astute business acumen with a compassionate heart, and has reshaped the real estate landscape in Hyderabad by combining tradition with cutting-edge technology and design principles. He approaches the construction and design industry with a highly scientific perspective. His pivotal move of introducing ‘Inncircles Arena’, a digital twin software, has reduced construction time by 25% and is now being adopted globally. Committed to formalizing the real estate sector, he is driven to bring multi-level improvements for seamless management and efficiency.
Mr. Korupolu has consistently advocated for happiness-centric urban developments that prioritize the well-being of residents through community spaces, mixed-use areas, walkability, and nature-integrated designs.
Mr. Ajitesh embodies a rare fusion Economics degree with a Minor in Mathematics and Philosophy from Purdue University, USA and strategic advisory acumen, he gained knowledge and a global perspective on business and real estate. His professional journey in real estate was a natural continuation of his family’s legacy, but Ajitesh was determined to introduce innovative technologies to the industry. This led to his pioneering work in the adoption of digital twin technology in construction management. Recognizing the untapped opportunities to enhance efficiency, he embarked on a mission to redefine the industry through the strategic implementation of cutting-edge technology. He became the first to introduce the concept of digital twins in Hyderabad—a technology that creates a virtual replica of a physical structure through Building Information Modeling (BIM). Understanding the transformative potential of this technology, Ajitesh set out to bridge the gap between systems, operations, and human resources in the construction process. Committed to formalizing the real estate sector, he is driven to bring multi-level improvements for seamless management and efficiency.
