U.S.-based IT major Cognizant, which has a substantial chunk of employees in India, has reported 7.45% year-on-year growth in revenue to $5.1 billion for March quarter of 2025.

It had earned a revenue of $4.7 billion in Q1 2024.

Cognizant follows January-December financial year.

The company has raised its full-year growth guidance to 3.9-6.4%, from 2.6-5.1% earlier.

It now expects a full-year (2025) revenue between $20.5-21 billion.

To hire 20,000 freshers in 2025

The company has announced plans to hire 20,000 freshers in 2025— a move intended to reshape the company’s talent pyramid, particularly to support managed services and AI-led software development.

While the company’s overall headcount remained nearly flat compared to previous quarter at 3,36,300, Cognizant’s leadership highlighted the strategic importance of talent amplification as the firm accelerates its growth and innovation agenda.

“As we stated at our Investor Day, we are hiring 20,000 freshers as part of our strategy, which is more than double what we did last year,” Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar S said.

This year, Mr. Kumar noted that the company plans to hire many more fresh graduates to build a stronger workforce pyramid, especially since managed services projects have increased over the past two years.

“But it also comes equally with a overhead of carrying higher bench at a lower cost and actually offshore,” he said.

DreamFolks, a travel and lifestyle experience company, has announced the appointment of Shekhar Sood as its new Chief Financial Officer, effective April 30, 2025.
“With nearly two decades of global experience across listed entities, multinationals, and high-growth private companies, Shekhar brings a proven track record of delivering strategic outcomes and building financial resilience. As CFO, he will lead DreamFolks’ overall finance function, spearhead value-driven initiatives, and support the company’s next phase of technology-led expansion. He will report to Liberatha Kallat, Chairperson and Managing Director,” said the company in a press statement.
Previously, Shekhar served as CFO at Bajaj Capital Group, where he played a pivotal role in aligning financial operations with strategic business objectives. His earlier stints include leadership roles at Socomec India, Ambuja Cements, CLAAS Agricultural Machinery, Nangia and Co., and Grant Thornton (WCC).
An executive alumnus of ISB, Shekhar is a Chartered Accountant, Company Secretary, and executive MBA, with certification in IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards). His core expertise spans strategic planning, IPO management, M&A, investor relations, treasury, ESG, enterprise risk, and regulatory compliance (LODR, ICDR).
Commenting on the appointment, Kallat said: ” As we step into a new phase of scale and strategic evolution, I’m delighted to welcome Shekhar to the leadership team. His deep expertise in leading financial strategies for high-growth, innovation-led companies makes him uniquely suited to support our ambitious vision. With Shekhar’s leadership, we aim to further strengthen our financial foundation, reinforce governance, and unlock long-term value for all stakeholders.His insights will be invaluable as we continue to accelerate what’s working, expand into new opportunities, and shape the future of travel experiences.”
On his appointment, Sood said, “I am excited to join a company that not only leads its category but continuously redefines it. My focus will be to enhance financial agility, enable scalable systems, and support strategic vision with strong governance and capital efficiency. I look forward to contributing to the next chapter of growth and to creating sustainable value for all stakeholders.”
DreamFolks provides an in-house proprietary technology platform that allows its clients such as Banks, Card Networks, Airlines, OTAs, and Enterprises to create custom offerings for their end consumers. DreamFolks, in the press statement said it manages the lounge and other benefits for most of the top Banks in India and enjoys a market share of over 90% in the domestic lounge access market for India-issued debit and credit programs.The company went public in Sep ’22 with listings on both BSE and NSE. “Dreamfolks has a global footprint extending to 3,000+ touchpoints in 100+ countries, across the world,” it said.

TRAI chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti. Picture: trai.gov.in

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti on Thursday (May 1, 2025) said it was not in favour of creating an environment where regulatory disparities put one medium of broadcasting at a disadvantage over another.

Mr. Lahoti’s remark came days after the Supreme Court sought responses from the Centre and others concerned on a plea seeking a ban on the streaming of sexually explicit content on OTT and social media platforms.

He said: “…the issues which are coming forward now are the regulatory disparities between one medium of dissemination and another. While we do welcome and want technology to come up and provide better and better audio-video experience so that the consumer can enjoy the fruits of the development of the technology, yet we do not want to create an environment where regulation discriminates between two mediums and puts one medium of broadcasting at a disadvantage compared to another; or one medium at a relatively undue advantage compared to another medium.”

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Speaking to The Hindu on the sidelines of a panel discussion on ‘Regulating Broadcast in the Digital Age: Key Frameworks & Challenges’ as part of the WAVES 2025, organised by the Information & Broadcasting Ministry, Mr. Lahoti said India has a very progressive regulatory framework so far as the traditional broadcasting was concerned. It was being regularly revised and updated to give the industry the requisite freedom, and also to protect the interest of consumers and small players in the entire value chain, he said.

“TRAI as a regulator has been regularly engaging with the stakeholders to see the need for review and has been updating it regularly,” he said, adding that it issued a revised regulation last year, one that was welcomed by the entire broadcasting distribution industry.

Another significant work done by TRAI in this regard was a complete revamp of the licensing framework for both the television and the radio broadcasting industries, where — in the context of the new Telecommunications Act — it reviewed the framework of the past 30 years and prepared a simplified authorisation structure, enabling ease of doing business. The different terms and conditions of various mediums were harmonised. The entire regulation was made “more or less technology agnostic”, and yet it gave a lot of freedom to the industry for infrastructure sharing etc., he said.

“However, now the challenge is that we have the digital video distribution services, which may be OTT streaming services or FAST (free ad-supported streaming television) etc., which are currently being regulated under the social media intermediary guidelines of MeitY, whereas the traditional broadcasting or the linear TV is regulated under the Telecommunications Act and the Cable TV Networks Act,” he said.

“Also, we have to see whether we are doing enough to protect the interests of consumers and also the interconnection between different stakeholders. In the case of the traditional TV, we have guardrails and the regulations to guide how they can interact and how they cannot exploit their dominant position, whether the same checks are available in the digital streaming services: these are the issues which would going forward need examination and would need certain actions,” he said.

During the panel discussion, Mr. Lahoti said a recent industry study showed that digital media surpassed linear television in 2024 in terms of the industry segment, and in India, digital media stood at nearly $9.4 billion as against $8 billion of linear television.

Going forward, there should be minimal regulation covering the industry, but it should be adequate to protect the interests of the consumers and those at the lower end of the pyramid, he added.