MAM
72 per cent urban Indians happy in Circa 2023: Ipsos India happiness report
Mumbai: 20 March marks the UN’s International Day of Happiness with the theme of 2024 being “Reconnecting for Happiness: Building Resilient Communities.” It’s also the day when Ipsos, a global market research company releases its Ipsos India annual Happiness Report which deep dives into 12 months of a rigorous study to emerge with the true indicators of happiness for 2023.
Overall, in Circa 2023, 72 per cent per cent Indians claimed to be happy. While the Indians are most happy with family (73 per cent), deeper analyses reveal that personal finance and health are the top influencers of our happiness.
Ipsos experts ran a regression analysis on the 12 months of happiness data and the derived analysis provided a more nuanced view about what influences happiness and what contributes to happiness. The analysis further revealed that health and personal finances were the biggest influencers to Happiness for Indians. Family, which we are most happy about, was placed third in the pecking order of the importance hierarchy – far lower in influence as compared to health and personal finances.
The analysis also revealed, Indians have higher expectations on the financial front. So, while it was an important influencer, the current happiness score of personal finances was much lower, at 55 per cent.
Interestingly, on the professional front, work and career was seen to play a more significant role in terms of how it affects their finances. The actual work and colleagues had lesser impact on overall happiness.
“Indians are happy in their own ‘personal bubble’. Their attention is more inward-driven, rather than the external situation of the country and the world. The report captured variations across life stage, location and gender of the individual. For instance, for men, health and personal finances were equal influencers, while for women, health was clearly ahead as a driver to be happy. For those living in metros, health was a bigger influencer than for those in non-metros. An age-wise analysis also revealed the shift in what makes individuals happy – health overtakes finances for those older than 46 years, as compared to the younger generation (where both health and personal finances were equally important),” stated Ipsos India group service line leader, public affairs, corporate reputation, ESG & CSR Parijat Chakraborty.
The report, first of its kind in India, is based on the twelve-month data for 2023 from the Ipsos IndiaBus monthly Happiness Monitor. Ipsos IndiaBus is an urban India omnibus, fielded among 2200+ respondents per month from NCCS A, B, and C households, covering adult males/ females across all four zones in the country. The survey is conducted across 16 cities – a mix of metros, tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3 towns, providing a robust and representative view of urban Indians.
Access full report here:
Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
