Verve Media has won the digital and creative mandate for Maple India, a premium retailer of pre-owned smartphones, tablets and laptops.  Under the mandate, the agency will handle Maple India's social media marketing, AI-SEO and GEO, performance marketing across Google Ads and Meta Ads, and creative design. The partnership aims to strengthen the brand's digital presence, enhance customer engagement and drive growth through an integrated strategy spanning content, design and paid media.

The non-profit behind the gender sensitivity movement Laadli, has announced that entries for the 16th edition of the Laadli Media & Advertising Awards for Gender Sensitivity (LMAAGS) will close on July 31, 2026.  The awards recognise gender-sensitive work across journalism, advertising, films, television, web series, books and other media. Open to entries from across India, the journalism category accepts submissions in 14 languages, with winners to be announced at both regional and national levels.  Entries must have been published, released or aired between January 1 and December 31, 2025. There is no entry fee.

Wednesday, 15 July 2026 #1  ·  Times City  ·  In-depth feature A Month On, Noida Airport Waits For Wind In Its Sails By Saurabh Sinha   ·   The Times of India, New Delhi  ·  Page 9 One month after opening, Noida International Airport (NIA) is struggling with low passenger footfall, route withdrawals by Akasa Air and IndiGo, and the fundamental handicap of competing with the better-connected IGI Airport. The story uses week-by-week traffic data, airline-specific route changes, and comparisons with Navi Mumbai airport to analyse why India's first second-city international airport faces structural headwinds unlikely to ease before 2030. Rich with original traffic data broken down by week, passenger category, and airline, the piece goes beyond a launch-anniversary peg to diagnose systemic causes — Pakistani airspace closure, US-Iran oil shock, rupee weakness — that compound NIA's structural disad

Morgan G. joins Melbourne Social Co as senior account director Morgan G. has joined Melbourne Social Co as senior account director, returning to the industry after nine months of maternity leave. She announced the appointment on LinkedIn, describing it as an exciting new chapter. In the role, Morgan will lead client accounts and support the agency's continued growth. Morgan joins from Bastion, where she spent more than four years, most recently as senior client director. Earlier in her career, she held roles at TripADeal, Daylesford Apothecary & Roots Organic Providore and CHE Proximity, and completed internships with Fearless Brand Strategy, Cummins&Partners, Playbook Media and Publicis Groupe. Emily Gilbride joins Burson as account manager Emily Gilbride has joined Burson as an account manager, joining the agency's Corpsumer team after almost two years at Sling & Stone. Gilbride announced the appointment on LinkedIn, saying she was excited to begin the

AI-Generated Image   Every time a journalist trades a press card for a party ticket, it trends. When Sagarika Ghose was fielded by the Trinamool Congress for the Rajya Sabha in February 2024, it read online like a fresh phenomenon. It wasn't. Newslaundry, tracking the pattern the same month, pointed out she was joining a list that stretches back decades: M J Akbar, who moved from a Congress Lok Sabha seat in Bihar's Kishanganj to a minister of state role in the Modi cabinet before stepping down amid harassment allegations. Arun Shourie, nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the BJP in 1998 after editing The Indian Express and The Times of India, who later turned sharply critical of the party that gave him the seat. Chandan Mitra, nominated twice. Rajeev Shukla, who moved to the Congress after his own Rajya Sabha nomination. Shazia Ilmi, Ashutosh, and Ashish Khetan, who all joined the Aam Aadmi Party in the 2013 to 2015 window. Supriya Shrinate, who left the executive editor

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has savaged News Corp saying that Australians needed to “treat the rantings of the Murdoch media… the way you treat the drunk that you seel ate on a Saturday night, raving and screaming and raging at the moon outside a pub”. “Just carefully step by them, hopefully he doesn’t vomit on you… you’ve got to basically ignore it”. The comments were made at a private book launch for Getting Murdoched, written by two former News Corp journalists Andrew Dodd and Matthew Ricketson, and were reported this morning by Calum Jaspan at the Sydney Morning Herald. Dodd and Ricketson’s book claims to “expose how dissent is silence and reputations are destroyed” by the Murdoch empire. Turnbull urged Australians to “evict [Murdoc] from living rent free in the heads of the nation’s politics, media and public life”. ““Why any Labor government ever takes any notice of w

Albanese takes the reins on AI as warnings mount The Prime Minister has moved to centralise Australia’s artificial intelligence policy by creating a new Office of AI inside his own department, signalling a major shift in how Canberra intends to steer the technology’s economic and security impacts. The move comes amid expert warnings about job displacement, disinformation risks and data-centre pressures, setting up a high-stakes debate over whether Australia can both back innovation and tighten safeguards. Covered by: Australian Financial Review, Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Australian. Budget surplus under fire as bracket creep becomes the quiet plan Fresh analysis is challenging the government’s pathway back to surplus, arguing it leans heavily on bracket creep and optimistic assumptions about spending restraint—especially on the NDIS and the size of the public service. The scrutiny sharpens Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ political dilemma: bank a surplus narrative or spe