India's fast-track route to mobile maturity takes another step today with the appointment of new board and leadership for MMA India.

The global group's local council has named chair and co-chair appointments and announced the election of five board members.

The two chair roles go to board members Priya Nair of Hindustan Unilever and Sameer Singh of GroupM Media India, while the five board members added to the existing roster are Uday Sodhi (Sony Pictures Networks India), Partho Dasgupta (Barc India), Nandini Dias (Lodestar UM India), Shamsuddin Jasani (Isobar) and Siddharth Banerjee (Vodafone India).

the existing roster.

The primary role is seen to be a drive to educate and further the growth of the mobile marketing industry in India with events such as the Ideathon tech challenge.

Country head Moneka Khurana says MMA global and MMA India are working closely on a range of topics: "The evolution of mobile marketing has been continuously fuelled by rapid disruptions and transformation.

"In keeping with industry developments and consumers increased expectations of brand engagement in a mobile-first society, MMA India believes in staying abreast of new and upcoming industry trends to accelerate the transformation and innovation efforts in mobile marketing and to help drive business growth and build closer consumer engagements."

Priya Nair is executive director of Hindustan Lever's home care division with 24 years of experience on leading consumer brands and led the Kan Khajura Tesan activation to three Cannes Gold Lions awards.

She says despite unprecedented growth in recent years, there remains much room for growth in India: "As the leading trade association for mobile marketing worldwide, MMA will continue to provide the platforms and avenues for marketers to gain new knowledge and insights to India's mobile marketing ecosystem.

"It will be an exciting journey ahead, working with some of the industry best talents at MMA India, to capitalise on new opportunities and value add to India's growing mobile marketing industry."

Sam Singh is chief executive of GroupM South Asia and a veteran of the consumer products industry with experience covering GlaxoSmithKline, Procter & Gamble and Gillette in markets spanning the USA, UK, China, Middle East and India.

MMA India will announce its Mobile Ecosystem Report next months, based on research during Q2 and Q3 of 2018.