STAR India ropes in Lalit Bhagia as V-P, digital

STAR India has appointed Lalit Bhagia as vice-president, digital (internet and mobile). Bhagia was earlier with Digitas, the digital marketing agency of Publicis, as executive vice-president and head, Asia Pacific, digital.

Bhagia will report to Venkat Iyer, who is senior vice-president, information technology, digital and mobile interactive solutions, Star India. Iyer joined STAR India in December 2009, after Gurtej Sandhu, senior vice-president, new media and information technology, STAR India, moved to join News International's The Times newspaper (UK) as director, digital.

Bhagia has more than 10 years' experience in the digital and integrated marketing services domain. Of that, he has spent more than eight years at Solutions Integrated Marketing Services, a firm that was later merged with Digitas.

At Solutions Digitas, he was mainly involved in business development and client services, and used to head both the Digital AOR and IMC business. Some of the brands he managed are Hindustan Petroleum, Intel, Visa, Cisco, ESPN STAR Sports, Philips and Hitachi. Bhagia also worked with companies such as Times Internet and NIIT, prior to joining Solutions Integrated Marketing.