Marico's CSR arm to launch India's first innovation magazine

The CSR arm of Marico, in association with Spenta Multimedia, will launch the first-of-its-kind magazine that will focus on innovations in the country.

Marico Innovation Foundation, the corporate social responsibility wing of Marico, has collaborated with Spenta Multimedia to launch Innowin, a first-of-its-kind magazine that will focus on stories of innovation from across the country. The magazine aims to bring forth the untold stories of people behind small and big innovations that have left an impact on the masses.

Innowin will be launched in February and will appear once in every three months. It will be headed by Milind Sarwate, editor-in-chief, along with Tanmoy Goswami. Sarwate is the chief financial officer at Marico, while Goswami is senior editor at Spenta Multimedia.

Spenta Multimedia will handle the editorial, design, publishing, printing, conceptualizing, marketing and other responsibilities of the magazine. The magazine will have more than 100 pages and the inaugural issue will have a cover price of Rs 100.

Along with the innovations, Innowin will also tell about the failures and the effort behind innovations. The content will be divided into several segments. While the cover story will focus on outstanding researches, there will also be case studies on innovation, academic opinions, interviews with corporate leaders and policymakers, and a Great Indian Innovation debate featuring well known people from different backgrounds.

The magazine will target chief innovation officers, chief technical officers, chief executive officers, government policy makers, think tanks, people in research and development, academicians and students.

Goswami says, "We want to establish India as the capital of innovation and entrepreneurship. Innowin will focus on innovation in anything that impacts the life of an average Indian."

He adds that the magazine aims to find new, unconventional and resource effective solutions for social challenges. Headquartered in Mumbai, Innowin will cover stories from every nook and corner of the country with the help of Marico Innovation Foundation and several NGOs associated with it.

Harsh Mariwala, founder member, Marico Innovation Foundation, and chairman and managing director, Marico, says, "The idea to launch Innowin germinated from the need to continuously generate knowledge and create a regular channel to disseminate such information."

The magazine will have 60 per cent content and 40 per cent ads. "We will incorporate all those brands in advertising that believe in the philosophy of the magazine," says Goswami.

He clarifies that instead of focusing on revenue streams, the magazine will focus on spreading its reach.

The inaugural issue of the magazine will feature dignitaries from the corporate world, industry, planning commission and other areas. Some of the dignitaries are Renuka Ramnath (ICICI Eco-Net), Anand Mahindra (M&M), Arun Maira (National Planning Commission), Ganesh Natrajan (NASSCOM), Santosh Desai (Social Commentator) and others.

It will be present across stands and all leading bookstores in the country. It will also be available for subscription, the packages for which are yet to be finalised.

Goswami says, "At the time of launch we will be carrying out below the line activities to promote it and connecting with our audiences via the social media network such as the Facebook page." Geetu Rai, director, marketing, Spenta Multimedia will head the marketing and the ad sales team.

Marico Innovation Foundation was instituted in 2003 by Harsh Mariwala with the aim to fuel innovation in India. It confers awards in categories such as Innovation for India Awards and since 2006, 41 innovators have been recognised including organisations such as Kirloskar Brothers, BOSCH MICO, Su-Kam, Titan and Azim Premji Foundation.

Spenta Multimedia offers services in publishing custom and consumer magazines and coffee-table books, commercial printing, content generation and design, web design, event management and digital publishing.