Hindi
Cinépolis to host 6th Jagran Film Festival in Mumbai
MUMBAI: Cinépolis India will be hosting the Mumbai chapter of the 6th Jagran Film Festival at its Fun Cinemas property in Andheri from 28 September – 4 October.
Presenting films from across genres, countries, languages and eras, the festival brings forward diverse and extreme cinematic talent on one single platform.
Cinépolis business head – strategy Devang Sampat said, “The Jagran Film Festival has been entertaining and educating the masses by spreading a culture of cinema appreciation. Cinepolis this year participated in the festival in Lucknow, Patna, Ludhiana, Ranchi and going forward we shall be strategising to host more such festivals and ensure Cinepolis loyalist get to watch movies from all over the world. On the other hand, we as exhibitors also become a platform to bring together – filmmakers, distributors, audience through medium of Cinema and connect life, culture, art & emotions that surfaced during the film.”
Both Indian and foreign language films will be screened at the festival in 13 categories. A special non-competitive section called ‘Happiness Spirit’ will see a cluster of 10-15 select films that will weave in ‘happiness of the human spirit’ as a common theme.
The competitive sections include Indian Showcase, Debut Directors, Jagran Shorts, Top Shorts, World Panorama and Cinema of the Sellers category.
The best films in these categories will be decided upon by the jury comprising Hariharan, who leads the panel along with Pooja Bhatt, Mahesh Aney, Udit Narayan and A Sreekar. The awards will be conferred across numerous categories like Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Short Film, Best Debut Director and many more.
“It gives us immense pride to host an event of this stature. An important aspect of the festival is to generate a discussion on the various aspects of cinema and its impact on society. This will be aided by the presence of the cast and crew of a select few films being screened to drive insightful discussions between the artistes & filmmakers and the audience,” Sampat added.
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.
