Hindi
NETPAC’s 20th anniversary to debate on culture & politics of Asian cinema
NEW DELHI: A large number of film personalities, critics, scholars, festival directors and programmers from Asia and other parts of the world are converging here for Imaging Asia, a cultural fest being held to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC).
Eminent film critic and NETPAC President Aruna Vasudev said the four-day conference on The Culture and Politics of Asian Cinema from 19 August will through seven panel discussions focus on the specificity of film cultures and on the need to recognize and respect diversity while defining cinema; on the politics governing the cinema‘s evolving identity in the context of globalization and the shifts in technology against the dynamic landscapes of Asia; and about translating the cultural diversity from concept into practice.
The four-day seminar is being held in association with the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts.
There will be screening of 31Asian films that have won NETPAC awards at various festivals at four venues: the Instituto Cervantes, India Habitat Centre, the India International Centre, and the Alliance Française de Delhi.
The films being screened include those from India, Turkey, Iran, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, North and South Korea, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Japan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and a Palestine-France-Morocco-Germany co-production.
The NETPAC award instituted in 1994 is now presented at around 30 international film festivals. These festivals include Berlin, Rotterdam, Karlovy Vary, Jeonju, Pusan, Cinemalaya, Cinemanila, Bangkok, Barcelona, Estonia, Locarno, Antalya, Trivandrum, Mumbai, Abu Dhabi, Chongqing, Bursa, and Rome. The wide-ranging films reflecting cinematic trends in different countries are also award-winners at other prestigious festivals.
Oscar Pujol, Director of Instituto Cervantes said there is an annual Imaging India film festival in Spain which is very popular. He said there would be discussion on Asian Movies, Spanish Screens during the meet here.
Eminent art historian Rajive Sethi said there will be performances of traditional picture story-telling from India, Indonesia, Malaysia, China and Iran, underlining the forms of pre-cinema that existed in Asia before the technical invention of cinema. In addition, there are exhibitions of paintings, installations and video installations related to the cinema and to Asia, and performances organized by Asian Heritage Foundation and Indian Council for Cultural Relations.
Around 35 internationally-renowned film personalities specializing in Asian cinema have been invited to speak at the conference. Led by Aruna Vasudev, they include Pusan Festival Director Kim Dong-ho, renowned filmmakers Xie Fei (China), Garin Nugroho (Indonesia) and Adoor Gopalakrishnan.
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.
