Hindi
Two-tier selection process for National Film Awards
MUMBAI: The National Film Awards will be selected on a two-tier system.
It has also been decided that the total cash prize for the international film awards will go up to Rs 20 million and that of national film awards to Rs 10 million.
According to Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF) director general SM Khan, the films will first be seen by some regional level juries before the short-list being submitted to the national jury.
Each regional level juries will have a chairman and a member from outside the region. The other three members will be from within the region.
The regional level juries are North (English, Pujabi, Dogri, Urdu, Bhojpuri, Rajasthani and central Indian languages); West (Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati and Konkani); South in two groups (South one – Tamil and Malayalam, and South two – Telugu, Tulu and Kannada); and East – Bengali, Assamese, Oriya, and dialects spoken in northeast India).
The five chairpersons of the regional panels will be ex-officio members of the central jury, apart from a chairperson and five other members.
In the revamped format, new award categories for audiography, music direction, screenplay and dialogues have also been introduced. The category for best film in family welfare has been removed in view of the category on social issues.
Meanwhile, it was also announced that the format for the international film awards will see increased number of national entries (18 films from 15 earlier). And to extend the international competition, North American and European countries have also been added, besides countries from Asia, Africa and South America.
The new guidelines have been issued after considering the report from the Expert Committee on National Film Awards headed by eminent filmmaker and Member of Parliament Shyam Benegal. It has proposed a central jury and five regional juries to cover languages in different regions. It has also outlined guidelines for the regional jury composition. Other recommendations are being studied.
The Committee comprised Sharmila Tagore who also heads the Central Board of Film Certification, Rajiv Mehrotra of the Public Service Broadcasting Trust, Sai Paranjpye, Ashoke Vishwanathan, Vishal Bhardwaj, Nagesh Kukunoor, Mohan Agashe, Waheeda Rehman, Jahnu Baruah and Shaji N Karun. The Ministry is represented by the Joint Secretary (Films) DP Reddy as Member Secretary, and DFF director SM Khan.
The regional panels will begin screenings in Delhi on 19 August, while the central panel will sit from 1 September to select the best national awardees of 2009. The award ceremony may take place in the third week of October.
Hindi
India’s telecom subscribers cross 1.32 billion in February 2026
Broadband base swells past 1.06 billion as Jio and Airtel tighten grip on the market.
MUMBAI: India’s telecom sector is ringing in steady growth once again adding millions of new connections every month while the race for broadband supremacy continues to heat up like a fiercely contested cricket match. According to the latest data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on 1 April 2026, the total telephone subscriber base in the country reached 1,321.31 million at the end of February 2026. This marked a net addition of 7.31 million subscribers during the month, translating into a monthly growth rate of 0.56 per cent.
Wireless subscribers (including mobile and Fixed Wireless Access) stood at 1,273.31 million, registering a net addition of 6.97 million and a growth rate of 0.55 per cent. Within this, urban wireless connections grew to 730.75 million (growth 0.70 per cent), while rural wireless subscribers reached 542.56 million (growth 0.35 per cent).
Wireline subscribers, though much smaller in scale, showed slightly faster growth. The total wireline base increased to 47.99 million, with a net addition of 0.34 million and a monthly growth rate of 0.70 per cent. Urban areas continued to dominate wireline connections with a share of 89.41 per cent.
Overall tele-density in India improved to 92.66 per cent. Urban tele-density stood at 150.68 per cent, while rural tele-density edged up to 60.02 per cent.
The broadband subscriber base crossed a significant milestone, reaching 1,059.05 million at the end of February 2026. This reflected a healthy net addition of 6.33 million subscribers and a monthly growth rate of 0.60 per cent from January’s figure of 1,052.72 million.
Segment-wise, mobile wireless access continued to drive the majority of growth with 996.52 million subscribers. Fixed Wireless Access (including 5G FWA) added 16.51 million, while wired broadband stood at 46.02 million.
Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. maintained its commanding lead with 519.64 million broadband subscribers. Bharti Airtel Ltd. followed with 364.14 million, Vodafone Idea Ltd. with 129.36 million, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. with 28.70 million, and Atria Convergence Technologies Ltd. with 2.38 million.
Together, these top five players command a massive 98.60 per cent share of the total broadband market.
In the wireless (mobile) segment, private operators continued to dominate with 92.59 per cent market share, leaving public sector undertakings (BSNL and MTNL) with just 7.41 per cent.
Out of the total 1,257.29 million wireless (mobile) subscribers, 1,177.60 million were active on the peak Visitor Location Register (VLR) date, representing an impressive 93.66 per cent activity rate. Bharti Airtel led in this metric with 99.42 per cent of its subscribers active.
Meanwhile, 14.47 million subscribers submitted requests for Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in February, indicating healthy competition and customer churn across zones.
While urban areas still lead in absolute numbers, rural connectivity is slowly catching up. Rural wireless tele-density stood at 59.46 per cent, compared with the much higher urban figure of 142.32 per cent.
Fixed Wireless Access using 5G technology also showed promising traction, growing to 11.93 million subscribers. Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel are the primary players driving this segment.
The data paints a picture of a maturing yet still rapidly expanding telecom ecosystem. With total telephone subscribers now well past the 1.32 billion mark and broadband users comfortably above 1.06 billion, India continues to solidify its position as one of the world’s largest and most dynamic digital markets.
From bustling city streets to remote villages, more Indians are staying connected than ever before proving that when it comes to telecom, the country’s appetite for growth shows no signs of hanging up anytime soon.
