MAM
Bic Cello’s write-to-win initiative trains 600,000 students on how to prepare better for exams
MUMBAI: BIC Cello, the leading writing instrument company in India, launched in September of last year, ‘Cello Write-to-Win,’ a school initiative aimed at promoting a healthy attitude towards learning and education.
Academic stress is fast becoming a social issue as children and teens suffer from exam anxiety. Students are put under pressure to achieve academic excellence and outperform the best in class. The stress and fear of school failure can often adversely affect children’s social, emotional and academic success. The ‘Cello Write-to-Win’ program has been designed to train students to develop handwriting skills and help them manage the stress levels that come with exams. Since its launch last year, the program has educated 600,000 students across 1,500 schools in India.
The program includes two workshops that have been developed by a team comprised of certified handwriting analysts and experts from the field of education training. The first workshop, ‘Secret to handwriting’, engages students from the 4th to the 6th grade. The session teaches them the techniques they need to develop and enhance their handwriting skills, helping them manage the transition from pencil to pen.
The second workshop, 'Making Exams Stress Free', targets older students from the 7th to the 9th grade. The session teaches students four cognitive techniques that help them to enhance their learning and memorization skills and enable them to prepare better for their exams. The workshop also trains students on writing with speed while maintaining precision.
Commenting on the initiative, BIC Cello's, Director of Marketing for India, Tanveer Khan said, “We at BIC Cello understand the kind of stress that students go through during the exam periods. The 'Cello Write-to-Win' initiative was developed to equip students with the techniques they need to overcome that stress and succeed academically. We are delighted with the positive response that we received from the students and teachers and we look forward to continuing the program and expanding it into new schools across India."
Kumar Abhishek from Rashtriya Military Schools, 9th Standard, said while sharing his experience, “The sessions are extremely informative and helpful. It taught us appropriate techniques of holding a pen that help in developing handwriting skills. The activity focused on making exams stress-free by using mind maps which I will follow henceforth for better recall. Thank you, Cello, for making me feel more exam-ready.”
The Cello ‘Write-to-Win’ program also helps students to find the pen that is most suitable for them. Using the right pen can also help contribute to making exams less stressful by being reliable and offering comfort and glide in writing.
BIC Cello believes in empowering students by supporting them to reduce their stress, and help them prepare for their exams. The company launched an awareness campaign last year that addressed the academic pressure students feel from their parents. The ‘Surprise Test’ video garnered great success, with more than 40 M views, as it called on adults to support their children and pressure them less during exam periods.
Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
