iWorld
Govt. mulls setting up BSNL cell to monitor working in border areas
NEW DELHI: The Government is committed to revive Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and several initiatives are in the pipeline to bring it back to the position of market leader.
Communication and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad directed the Department of Telecom to explore the possibility of setting up a dedicated cell in BSNL to monitor the effectiveness of its network in border areas and also in areas badly affected by extremism.
Prasad said that the management of BSNL would also regain lost confidence of people by improving services and response.
According to him, BSNL has launched a major initiative to improve quality of signal for which it plans to add another 1150 towers during this fiscal in Bihar alone.
The minister has also asked BSNL to improve services and ensure that better quality of signal is maintained specially in the border and extremism affected areas. Prasad was addressing members of Parliament from the States of Bihar, Meghalaya, Manipur and Nagaland. The meeting was part of the series of meetings planned to make telecom officials directly answerable to the parliamentary representatives so as to have a firsthand account of public sectors performance, problems faced and possible solutions.
Members of Parliament from the States of Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and North Eastern States participated in the first meeting. Prasad directed the Department to call five such meetings so that all members of Parliament are given opportunity to raise issues directly with officials concerned.
At the meeting, officials were also informed that the public sector, which came into being only in October 2000, has a net worth of Rs 51,203 crore with an equity capital of Rs 12,500 crore only.
New initiatives taken to improve viability include Wi-FI services, data centre services and introduction of next generation network switching technology. It was pointed out that four million lines in Phase I will have NGN by the end of this fiscal while total number of 14 million ports are planned. 2500 hot spots are planned for the year of which 41 hot spots have already been deployed.
Interestingly, the meeting took place within days of a meeting held by the Telecom Ministry with private telecom service providers to improve their services, following complaints by Members of Parliament.
iWorld
WPP Opendoor and Snapchat launch AI Lens for Prime Video India
Generative AI Lens personalises content discovery with real-time user integration.
MUMBAI: In the age of main characters, Prime Video is handing users the script and the spotlight. WPP Opendoor, WPP’s dedicated Amazon unit, has teamed up with Snapchat to roll out an India-first generative AI-powered Lens for Prime Video’s latest campaign, ‘Stories for Your Every Era… it’s on Amazon Prime’. The activation taps into the rising “era-core” trend, where identities shift with moods, moments and mindsets and content is expected to keep up.
The Lens does exactly that. Using generative AI, it places users directly into the worlds of popular Prime Video titles such as Maxton Hall, Beast Games, The Boys and The Traitors, embedding their faces into key visuals in real time. The result is less browsing, more becoming.
The idea is rooted in a behavioural shift: audiences increasingly see themselves as the centre of their own narratives, especially on social platforms. By turning viewers into participants, the campaign blurs the line between content discovery and content experience.
It also introduces a layer of personalisation that goes beyond algorithms. Whether someone identifies with a “trust no-one era” or an “infinite aura era”, the Lens curates recommendations that align with that evolving identity making discovery feel intuitive rather than instructed.
This marks a shift in how streaming platforms approach engagement. Instead of pushing titles, the focus is on pulling users into the story itself transforming passive scrolling into interactive storytelling.
The collaboration also underscores how platforms like Snapchat are becoming key playgrounds for content marketing, particularly when paired with emerging technologies like generative AI. The format is native, immersive and built for participation three things traditional discovery often struggles to deliver.
In a crowded streaming landscape, where attention is the real currency, Prime Video’s bet is clear, if viewers feel like the story is about them, they are far more likely to press play.
