Brands
Allied Blenders names Pradipta Basu as CMO amid marketing reshuffle
Leadership rejig sees Basu take charge while Mohta, Rao exit SMP roles
MUMBAI: Allied Blenders and Distillers Limited has appointed Pradipta Basu as its chief marketing officer, marking a key shift in its marketing leadership as the company sharpens its growth strategy.
The appointment, effective April 15, 2026, also sees a change in reporting structure. Arvind Mohta and Uday Rao will no longer be classified as senior management personnel, though both continue in their roles as marketing directors.
Basu steps into the role with over 25 years of experience across FMCG and beverages, having worked with companies including Radico Khaitan, United Spirits, ITC Limited, Godfrey Phillips India, Alcobrew Distilleries India and HJ Heinz.
Most recently, he served as vice president – marketing and business development at Radico Khaitan, where he led national marketing strategy, portfolio management and P&L responsibilities. His remit also included driving innovation and scaling brand growth across multiple categories.
Over the years, Basu has built a reputation for managing large national brands and premium portfolios, while leading integrated ATL and BTL campaigns, product launches, pricing strategies and agency ecosystems.
Academically, he holds a management degree from Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, along with an MBA in marketing and HR. He also has a PhD in management from École Supérieure Robert de Sorbonne, France.
With this move, Allied Blenders appears to be aligning its marketing leadership with evolving business priorities, placing seasoned experience at the centre of its next growth phase.
Brands
Google nears Nvidia in race for world’s most valuable company
Market cap gap narrows as Google hits $4.65 trillion, Nvidia at $4.86 trillion.
MUMBAI: In the AI gold rush, even the giants are sprinting and Google is suddenly gaining ground. Google is rapidly closing in on Nvidia in the race to become the world’s most valuable publicly listed company, with the gap between the two narrowing sharply amid diverging stock momentum. The tech giant’s market capitalisation has surged to around $4.65 trillion, following a more than 140 per cent rise in its share price over the past year.
That rally has added over $2.6 trillion in value in just 12 months, including nearly $900 billion since January alone. Its stock recently hovered at $381.80, slipping marginally by 0.04 per cent, but still reflecting strong upward momentum.
Nvidia, meanwhile, continues to hold the top spot with a valuation of approximately $4.86 trillion. The chipmaker crossed the $5 trillion milestone in October last year and peaked at $5.27 trillion on 27 April. However, its shares have largely plateaued over the past six months, rising just 0.2 per cent recently to $199.99.
The contrast in trajectories is striking. While Nvidia has seen relatively flat movement, Google has gained over 36 per cent in the same six-month period. Barron’s estimates suggest that if current trends hold, the valuation gap could shrink to as little as $190 million by the time Nvidia reports its first-quarter earnings on 20 May.
Daily momentum paints a similar picture. Nvidia recorded average daily gains of about 0.66 per cent last month, compared to Google’s stronger 1.42 per cent, an edge that could prove decisive in the short term.
Driving Google’s resurgence is its aggressive push into artificial intelligence across its ecosystem, from search and YouTube to cloud computing. The company has already invested $144 billion in capital expenditure over the past two years and plans to deploy a further $490 billion over the next two.
Its cloud division is also gathering pace. Google Cloud reported an order backlog of nearly $220 billion in the latest quarter, with total backlog touching a record $462 billion, around half of which is expected to be realised within two years. The company’s entry into chip sales is also beginning to factor into its growth narrative.
The last time Google briefly topped the S&P 500 by market value was in February 2016, when it edged past Apple for just two days. This time, the stakes and the numbers are far higher.
At the heart of the contest lies a single force: artificial intelligence. As both companies pour billions into infrastructure, chips and platforms, the leaderboard is no longer just about size, it is about who can scale the future faster.
