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Stay continues in Karnataka and Gujarat as courts adjourn hearing to 10 April
NEW DELHI/BENGALURU: The stay on digitisation of cable television will continue in six cities of Gujarat and Karnataka as the High Courts in both the states decided to continue hearing tomorrow of the petitions filed against the digital addressable system (DAS) on the ground of shortage of set top boxes (STBs).
The stay on switching off analogue signals has been put off till further orders in the cities of Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Surat, and Vadodara as the counsel for the Union of India could not appear for the hearing due to personal reasons. The matter has been adjourned for tomorrow.
Justice Rajesh Shukla of the Gujarat High Court directed the petitioner Cable Operators Association of Gujarat through its president Pramod Pandya to file by tomorrow his rejoinder to the affidavit filed by the Information & Broadcasting ministry.
Justice S Abdul Nazeer of the Karnataka High Court also extended the stay in Bengaluru and Mysore after the hearing writ petition filed by the Karnataka State Cable TV Operators Association (KSCOA) remained inconclusive. The hearing will continue tomorrow.
The petitioners, Karnataka State Cable TV Operators (KSCOA), and one set of respondents -the MSOs‘ legal representatives – finished their arguments in the matter that ran throughout the day.
It is now the turn of the other respondents – the Union of India through I&B ministry and the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) to present their arguments against the writ petition tomorrow.
The IBF has impleaded itself as a party in both Gujarat and Karnataka, primarily to argue that there should be no delay in implementation of DAS.
In its petition, the Cable Operators Association of Gujarat has said that there is shortage of set top boxes and no clarity on acquisition of these boxes.
The Government has already switched off the analogue television signals in Phase II from the midnight of 31 March.
Pandya said over phone from Ahmedabad that STBs ordered from China had failed to arrive because of internal problems in that country and therefore the local cable operators could not be penalized for this.
As reported earlier, KSCOA filed a writ petition against the implementation of the second phase of the Digital Addressable System (DAS) that was to be implemented on 1 April onwards in Bengaluru. Other petitions filed against DAS in Mysore and some other LCOs were clubbed together.
Meanwhile, digitisation has also been stayed in Hyderabad and Vishakhapatnam and the case is coming up for hearing before the Andhra Pradesh High Court next week.
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With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
