Applications
Aircel launches an e-book store ‘BookMate’ for its customers
MUMBAI: Aircel, one of India’s leading telecom players, launched an e-book store ‘Aircel BookMate’ for its customers. Aircel BookMate is a one-stop-shop for avid readers and book lovers to browse, store, download and read books, magazines and comics, on their smartphones, tablets and PCs. The e-book store will enable users to access a comprehensive catalogue of fiction and non-fiction bestsellers, magazines, comics, biographies, classics, children’s stories and reference books, as well as a range of titles available for free download. The e-book store will also have a variety of books available in vernacular languages.
Aircel chief marketing officer Anupam Vasudev said, “India is an emerging market for digital books as e-book sales have risen exponentially in the recent time. Digital devices will play in important part in how people buy and consume books. According to a study by Juniper Research, globally about 30 per cent of e-books will be purchased on tablets, 15 per cent will be purchased on smartphones and roughly 55 per cent will be purchased on e-readers by 2016. The popularity of e-books have generated a perfect opportunity for publishers, book retailers, mobile network operators, device manufacturers and even authors to supply, deliver and monetize electronic book content across the Internet and mobile networks. Thus, as Aircel continues to build on its commitment to provide content for data users, we have introduced our own e-book store ‘Aircel BookMate’ which gives our customers a myriad of e-books & e-magazines to choose from in various categories.”
Aircel BookMate will be available on WAP, Web and App platforms (Google Play) and customers can avail its benefits by registering on www.aircelbookmate.com. A well-established Points System has been introduced for users to buy e-books from the website. The users can also purchase points using their Aircel account balance. The content library is constantly being added with bestsellers from leading publishers across the world. It includes titles from some of the top publishers including Syndication Today (India Today), Outlook, Diamond Comics (Chacha Chaudhary), Chandamama & Media Transasia.
Applications
Inshorts Group chief Deepit Purkayastha joins IAB video council for Southeast Asia and India
The co-founder and chief executive of the short-form content platform has been inducted into the IAB SEA+India Video Council, giving India a stronger voice in shaping digital video frameworks
NOIDA: India has long been the world’s most chaotic, multilingual and mobile-first digital market. Now, one of its most prominent short-video executives is getting a seat at the table where the rules are written.
Deepit Purkayastha, co-founder and chief executive of Inshorts Group, has been selected as a member of the IAB SEA+India Video Council for 2026. Run by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the council brings together senior leaders from Southeast Asia and India to shape standards, best practices and measurement frameworks for the fast-evolving video and digital advertising ecosystem.
The timing is pointed. According to the IAMAI-Kantar Internet in India Report 2025, over 588 million Indians are now consuming short-video content, with growth increasingly driven by rural and non-metro audiences. India’s active internet user base has crossed 950 million, with 57 per cent of users now coming from rural markets. Yet the frameworks that govern how video consumption is measured and monetised were largely designed for single-language, Western markets and have struggled to keep pace with the scale, diversity and complexity of India’s digital landscape.
Purkayastha is no stranger to these debates. He already serves on the AI Council at Marketing and Media Alliance India and as co-chair of the Digital Entertainment Committee at the Internet and Mobile Association of India. His induction into the IAB SEA+India Video Council extends that influence into the global video standards arena.
Inshorts Group sits squarely at the intersection of these forces. Its flagship product, Inshorts, India’s highest-rated short news app, reaches 12 million active users with 60-word news summaries. Its sister platform, Public App, reaches 80 million monthly active users across more than 700 districts and 12 languages, serving communities that most global platforms barely register.
Purkayastha said the opportunity was about building something more representative. “India today sits at the centre of the global video ecosystem, but the frameworks that define how value is created and measured have not always kept pace with the realities of our market,” he said. “Being part of the IAB SEA+India Video Council is an opportunity to contribute to a more representative and future-ready approach, one that accounts for diversity in language, context, and user intent.”
As a council member, Purkayastha will contribute to shaping regional standards across video advertising, measurement and platform governance, with a focus on frameworks that are native to India’s multilingual, mobile-first ecosystem rather than imported from global benchmarks designed elsewhere.
For years, India has been content to play by rules written for other markets. Purkayastha’s induction is a signal that it is done waiting to be consulted and ready to start writing them.
