Hindi
Chillar Party bags best Indian film award at ICFFI
MUMBAI/HYDERABAD: The 17th International Children Festival India (ICFFI) concluded in Hyderabad with the Andhra Pradesh governor ES Narsimhan calling upon filmmakers to treat making films for children as a corporate social responsibility and set aside budget for atleast one children‘s film every year.
While Iranian film Alafzar (Meadow) directed by Mohammad-Ali Talebi won the Golden Elephant for Best feature Film in the international section, the Nitesh Tiwari and Vikas Bahl directed Chillar Party received the Golden Elephant for the best Hindi film in the Indian section. The children‘s jury also selected the film as the best film.
The German film Vorstadkrokodile 2 (The Crocodiles Strike Back) by Christian Ditter won the Golden Elephant in the international category from the children‘s jury. Both the adult and children jury selected Nineandhalf Goodbye by Halina Dyrschka of Germany as the best film.
In the little character category Varun Haldar and Vineeta Nayak‘s Hamari Duniya received the best director award. Umesh Kulkarni won the best director award for Vihir while his film received a special mention from the children jury.
Lost in Africa by Vibeka Muasya, a collaboration between Denmark and Kenya received the best director award in the international category. The children jury also made a special mention of the film.
Nila Madhab Panda‘s I Am that already has several international laurels to its credit, received two awards; one by Sanjay Chouhan for the best screenplay for I Am Kalam and the other by actor Harsh Maya who won the best actor award for his role in the film.
The colourful closing ceremony was attended by Andhra Pradesh Information and Public Relations minister DK Aruna, Kerala Social Welfare minister MK Muneer, Children‘s Film Society (CFSI) chairperson Nandita Das and CFSI CEO Sushovan Banerjee.
Das revealed that around 175,000 children attended the week-long festival.
, that saw a participation of 152 films from 40 countries, ended on Sunday with the presentation of awards.
While the award for the Best Indian director was bagged by Umesh Kulkarni for Vihir, . Sanjay Iranian film Alafzar (Meadow) directed by Mohammad-Ali Talebi won the Golden Elephant for Best feature Film in the international category, while the German film Vorstadkrokodile 2 (The Crocodiles Strike Back) by Christian Ditter was named the Best Feature Film in the international category from the children‘s jury.
The seven-day film festival was organised by the Children‘s Film Society of India along with the Central and Andhra Pradesh governments.
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.
