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I&B Ministry presses for convergence regulation
NEW DELHI: Information & Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari on Wednesday said he would talk to Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal to impress upon him the need to create a statutory mechanism to address issues related to convergence across media, entertainment and telecom.
"Convergence across media, entertainment and telecom space specially with digitisation kicking in, is inevitable. Therefore, at some point in time there will have to be an overarching (legal) architecture which looks at it holistically," Tewari told reporters on the sidelines of Convergence India 2013.
Admitting that convergence is a reality which cannot be ignored, he said: "I will talk to my senior colleague, the minster of telecom (Kapil Sibal) and see if we can work out a modus operandi whereby we can put a statutory architecture on the convergence format."
Efforts have earlier been made to have a legal framework for convergence of the three sectors. A Convergence Bill was tabled in Parliament more than a decade ago. The bill has sought to create an autonomous commission to regulate carriage of all forms of communications, and for establishment of an appellate tribunal and to provide for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
The bill aimed at promoting, facilitating and developing in an orderly manner the carriage and content of communications (including broadcasting, telecommunications and multimedia). The Convergence Bill had sought amalgamation of Information Technology (IT), Telecommunications and entertainment industry by replacing the Telegraph Act of 1985 and the Indian Wireless Act of 1933.
Tewari admitted that the convergence bill tabled earlier could not be worked on. "The EGoM (empowered group of ministers) will work on the prevalent conditions," he said.
Need to encourage production of indigenous STBs
Tewari said one of the government‘s primary concerns now is to ensure that digital set top box (STB) manufacturing happens in India as the whole process is going to lead to revenue expansion of about $4 to $5 billion, according to a Trai estimate.
"As we speak today, most of that business is not coming to India. So, that is an overriding priority for us as to how we are able to build an indigenous STB manufacturing model on to it," he said.
Tewari also said STBs should be inter-operable and wanted enough operators for the consumers to switch to.
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Inshorts Group chief Deepit Purkayastha joins IAB video council for Southeast Asia and India
The co-founder and chief executive of the short-form content platform has been inducted into the IAB SEA+India Video Council, giving India a stronger voice in shaping digital video frameworks
NOIDA: India has long been the world’s most chaotic, multilingual and mobile-first digital market. Now, one of its most prominent short-video executives is getting a seat at the table where the rules are written.
Deepit Purkayastha, co-founder and chief executive of Inshorts Group, has been selected as a member of the IAB SEA+India Video Council for 2026. Run by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the council brings together senior leaders from Southeast Asia and India to shape standards, best practices and measurement frameworks for the fast-evolving video and digital advertising ecosystem.
The timing is pointed. According to the IAMAI-Kantar Internet in India Report 2025, over 588 million Indians are now consuming short-video content, with growth increasingly driven by rural and non-metro audiences. India’s active internet user base has crossed 950 million, with 57 per cent of users now coming from rural markets. Yet the frameworks that govern how video consumption is measured and monetised were largely designed for single-language, Western markets and have struggled to keep pace with the scale, diversity and complexity of India’s digital landscape.
Purkayastha is no stranger to these debates. He already serves on the AI Council at Marketing and Media Alliance India and as co-chair of the Digital Entertainment Committee at the Internet and Mobile Association of India. His induction into the IAB SEA+India Video Council extends that influence into the global video standards arena.
Inshorts Group sits squarely at the intersection of these forces. Its flagship product, Inshorts, India’s highest-rated short news app, reaches 12 million active users with 60-word news summaries. Its sister platform, Public App, reaches 80 million monthly active users across more than 700 districts and 12 languages, serving communities that most global platforms barely register.
Purkayastha said the opportunity was about building something more representative. “India today sits at the centre of the global video ecosystem, but the frameworks that define how value is created and measured have not always kept pace with the realities of our market,” he said. “Being part of the IAB SEA+India Video Council is an opportunity to contribute to a more representative and future-ready approach, one that accounts for diversity in language, context, and user intent.”
As a council member, Purkayastha will contribute to shaping regional standards across video advertising, measurement and platform governance, with a focus on frameworks that are native to India’s multilingual, mobile-first ecosystem rather than imported from global benchmarks designed elsewhere.
For years, India has been content to play by rules written for other markets. Purkayastha’s induction is a signal that it is done waiting to be consulted and ready to start writing them.
