Hindi
Ekta Kapoor sets up Delhi campus of ICE
MUMBAI: Ekta Kapoor has launched the campus of her media school Institute of Creative Excellence (ICE) at South Extension Delhi today. The school is headquartered in Mumbai.
Setting up an institute in the national capital stems from the belief of Kapoor for creating a benchmark in the field of education and to bequeath power to the dreams of young aspirants whilst imparting the right kind of knowledge.
Nestled in the heart of Delhi, the Institute promises to give to its student’s world-class education accumulated with wisdom to shine as the future stars of the industry. The ICE Delhi facility initially will conduct training of acting, modeling, animation and VFX, dance and young filmmaker program for Kids in the South Extension area.
In addition, the Delhi unit of ICE, which happens to be the Regional office of the media school for North Zone, will continue to market and send shortlisted students for other major specialisations such as cinematography, direction, editing, production, scriptwriting, sound recording etc to Mumbai. Students of ICE will have the flexibility of learning as per their convenience as various courses would be available in two modes (full time and part time).
Talking about expanding in Delhi, joint managing director of Balaji Telefilms and Member of ICE Academic Council Kapoor said: “There is plenty of talent in our country today and it just needs to handpicked and channelised correctly. I want to reach out to masses from all over our country and provide them with the right kind of expertise that will help them go a long way. Looking at the kind and amount of talent that comes from Delhi, we felt it was best we set up an institute in their home city. All doors are open at ICE Delhi for those with the right kind of grit, eagerness and enthusiasm.”
ICE CEO Anurag Gupta averred, “Setting up a campus in Delhi is just the beginning and have many more in the offing in the national arena. To cater to the industry’s growing demands for trained actors; ICE will ensure that they take those extra measures to make certain that they churn out the most superior quality talent in the country.”
After having trained over 700 students in Mumbai, ICE is finally set to kick start its power-packed curriculum for its Delhi Audience.
Earlier this month, an ICE wing was set up in Bangalore on 9 June.
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.
