Hindi
Aashayein: A poor example of filmmaking
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| Banner: Percept Picture Company Director: Nagesh Kukunoor Cast: John Abraham, Sonal Sehgal, Anaitha Nair, Girish Karnad, Farida Jalal, Master Ashwin Chitale |
MUMBAI: Aashayein is a poor example of filmmaking from start to end. There is a huge set right out of a C grade film where people bet on cricket in lakhs and crores. Most extras don‘t look like they can afford a cup of tea, let alone bet in lakhs. Is this how betting on cricket is conducted? Quite a revelation!
John Abraham bets his girlfriend Sonal Sehgal‘s savings to come back with a win of millions to discover that he has lung cancer and about three months to live. Like all film heroes he is brave about his cancer, even laughs at it!
And, while sprinting on a street in the dead of the night, in true filmy style, an old newspaper comes and hits him in the face. This leads him to Xanadu a hospice where terminal patients spend their last days. John Abraham buys his way in to the hospice which claims funds to be scarce but has five star amenities like two cooks serving delicacies from six nations!! After this, the film tries to be many films, Hrishikesh Mukherjee‘s Anand included, but ends up being a fantasy with poor imagination. To put it mildly, viewing it becomes intolerable!
With a poor script and poorer direction, the few good moments in the film are provided by Anaitha Nair, a 17-year inmate at the hospice whose dialogue is pungently witty and her last wish is to bed John Abraham who complements her well. Rest of the performances are good, too. Rest of the aspects are mediocre.
As mentioned on the onset, a poor specimen of film making.
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.
