iWorld
ZEE5 strikes multiple wins at JIFF Awards 2023
Mumbai: In the recently organised Jaipur International Film Festival Awards 2023, video streaming platform ZEE5 bagged multiple awards for its original content. ZEE5 Originals shows dominated the iconic ceremony held in Jaipur on 6 January.
While The Broken News was felicitated under the best web series category, Mithya was awarded with the special jury mention—web series award.
“This is a great start to 2023 with ZEE5 being recognised at the globally acclaimed Jaipur International Film Festival. It encourages our efforts to explore and expand our slate with meaningful stories that resonate with audiences. As the largest homegrown OTT player, ZEE5 envisions catering to every audience as per their preferences, investing in industry talent, and partnering with the best storytellers across regions and languages. We are thankful to the jury, our partners, and the audiences for their love and support in our endeavour to make ZEE5 a platform of choice for multilingual entertainment seekers,” stated ZEE5 India chief business officer Manish Kalra.
Other ZEE5 Originals that shone bright at the awards show included the series Saas Bahu Achaar Pvt. Ltd., Vilangu, and Rangbaaz – Darr Ki Rajneeti.
Talking about award wins and revamping content design strategy, ZEE5 chief content officer – Hindi originals Nimisha Pandey said, “We are delighted to begin 2023 on a high note, with multiple award wins at the prestigious Jaipur International Film Festival. This is a result of our consistent efforts towards bringing forth India’s cultural essence through extraordinary stories, working with the most prolific storytellers and actors, and constantly developing our content offering with variedness to keep up with changing trends. Staying true to ZEE5’s ideology, we have constantly supported our creator community’s vision, laying special impetus on authenticity, breaking through the conventional norms of storytelling. As we enter 2023, our strong line-up of shows and movies in Hindi as well as other regional languages is a testament to our commitment of continuing to entertain viewers from across the globe, taking ZEE5’s popularity beyond the barriers of language, culture and geography.”
As an industry pioneer, ZEE5 has been experimental in its content design approach throughout 2022, from introducing India’s first adaptation of Korean drama show – Flower of Evil, with the launch of Duranga, to following a multi-pronged approach in creator collaborations. Taking major strides in India’s OTT ecosystem, ZEE5 has not only onboarded well-established content creators, but is also nurturing young talent by providing them a platform to showcase their stories.
In recent years, ZEE5 has been making consistent investments in expanding its ‘Originals’ content slate across languages. With an array of impactful stories that cater to multiple consumer cohorts, ZEE5 has been successful in offering its audiences a diverse and compelling slate featuring titles such as Sunflower, State of Siege: Temple Attack, Break Point, Bob Biswas, Broken News, and Kaun Banegi Shikharwati, amongst many others. In a bid to consolidate its position as the most-preferred digital content platform, ZEE5 has built a strong line-up of Hindi originals across the spectrum for 2023, with shows like Mithya, Abhay 3, Rangbaaz 3, and many more. ZEE5 is one of the first national OTT players to announce an exclusive, specially curated slate for its Tamil, Telugu, and Bangla audiences, in a major push towards strengthening its hyperlocal brand positioning for region-specific as well as global audiences across 190+ countries.
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.
