iWorld
IPRS expands music rights network with new hubs in Kohima and Delhi
India’s performing rights body is building a creator economy one IP hub at a time
MUMBAI: India’s northeast has long made music. Now, for the first time, it has somewhere to protect it. The Indian Performing Right Society (IPRS) launched the Nagaland Music IP Hub in Kohima on March 21, 2026, at the Regional Centre of Excellence for Music and Performing Arts, a move that signals a sharp pivot from urban-centric rights infrastructure towards a genuinely national one.
Led by chairman Javed Akhtar and chief executive Rakesh Nigam, and built in collaboration with the Task Force for Music and Arts (TaFMA), the hub is a physical, on-ground support centre where creators can register their work, enrol as IPRS members, and get practical guidance on rights, royalties, and licensing. The presence of actor Shabana Azmi added cultural heft to the occasion, drawing national attention to the cause of protecting regional artistic heritage through formal rights mechanisms.
The Kohima launch was part of Season 3 of IPRS’s flagship pan-India initiative, My Music My Rights (MMMR), a creator-first programme aimed at demystifying the music business for lyricists, composers, and publishers. The workshop brought together Arpito Gope, chief consultant at TaFMA; Randeep Singh, manager at the Indian Record Manufacturing Company (INRECO); Sabyasachi Bakshi, senior manager at PDL; and Rumpa Banerjee, general manager for corporate communications and member relations at IPRS. The agenda covered music distribution, publishing, copyright, licensing, artist management, and live gigs, followed by expert-led sessions on artist branding and a deep dive into music rights and royalties led by Banerjee. A dedicated IPRS helpdesk handled on-the-spot membership enrolment and fielded creator queries in real time.
Six days later, the initiative landed in the capital. The My Music My Rights Creator Connect session in New Delhi on March 27, held at Lajpat Nagar in collaboration with Furtados, drew artists, composers, producers, lyricists, and independent creators for a session on the business of music. The panel featured Akshay Kapoor of Believe (distribution), independent artist Banjaare, Kshitij Gupta of Nupur Audios (label), and Shijin San, chief executive and co-founder of Blue Turtle (talent and events management), with Harsh Aghhi of SIR Gamma moderating.
The bigger picture is clear. IPRS is stitching together a nationwide Creator Connect ecosystem, decentralised access points backed by government bodies, music institutions, and industry stakeholders, that allows creators, wherever they are, to understand, protect, and monetise their work. The organisation is also turning its attention to thornier questions: the ownership of folk, tribal, and traditional music; the limitations of public domain frameworks; and the rapidly sharpening challenge of AI in music creation and rights management. These themes are expected to anchor IPRS’s programming around World Intellectual Property Day on April 26.
Separately, IPRS is spotlighting the growing influence of women leaders across the music ecosystem, figures who, the organisation argues, are not merely participating in the industry but actively redesigning it. Through initiatives such as Soundscapes of India and My Music My Rights, IPRS is pushing to ensure that folk, tribal, and contemporary traditions are not just celebrated but legally protected.
Music rights in India have long been an afterthought for many creators. IPRS is betting, hub by hub and city by city, that they need not remain one.
iWorld
Meta plans 8,000 layoffs in new AI-led restructuring wave
First phase from May 20 may cut 10 per cent workforce amid AI pivot.
MUMBAI: At Meta, the future may be artificial but the cuts are very real. The social media giant is reportedly preparing a fresh round of layoffs, with an initial wave expected to impact around 8,000 employees as it doubles down on its artificial intelligence ambitions. According to a Reuters report, the first phase of job cuts is slated to begin on May 20, targeting roughly 10 per cent of Meta’s global workforce. With nearly 79,000 employees on its rolls as of December 31, the move marks one of the company’s most significant workforce reductions in recent years.
And this may only be the beginning. Sources indicate that additional layoffs are being planned for the second half of the year, although the scale and timing remain fluid, likely to be shaped by how Meta’s AI capabilities evolve in the coming months. Earlier reports had suggested that total cuts in 2026 could reach 20 per cent or more of its workforce.
The restructuring comes as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg continues to steer the company towards an AI-first operating model, committing hundreds of billions of dollars to the transition. Internally, this shift is already visible: teams within Reality Labs have been reorganised, engineers have been moved into a newly formed Applied AI unit, and a Meta Small Business division has been created to align with broader structural changes.
The trend is hardly isolated. Across the tech sector, companies are trimming headcount while investing aggressively in automation. Amazon, for instance, has reportedly cut around 30,000 corporate roles nearly 10 per cent of its white-collar workforce citing efficiency gains driven by AI. Data from Layoffs.fyi shows over 73,000 tech employees have already lost jobs this year, compared with 153,000 in all of 2024.
For Meta, the move echoes its earlier “year of efficiency” in 2022–23, when about 21,000 roles were eliminated amid slowing growth and market pressures. This time, however, the backdrop is different. The company is financially stronger, generating over $200 billion in revenue and $60 billion in profit last year, with shares up 3.68 per cent year-to-date though still below last summer’s peak.
That contrast underlines the shift underway. These layoffs are less about survival and more about reinvention. As Meta restructures itself around AI from autonomous coding agents to advanced machine learning systems, the question is no longer whether the company will change, but how many roles will be left unchanged when it does.
