Hindi
Iconic film maker Yash Chopra passes away
MUMBAI: On 21 October, one of the most respected and iconic film makers from Bollywood, Yash Chopra, breathed his last, leaving behind a legacy of some of the best made films in Indian cinema. Chopra was being treated for dengue at Lilavati Hospital where he was admitted on 13 October after complaining of weakness and difficulty in breathing.
According to media reports, Chopra was not responding to treatment well and given his age, battling a disease like dengue was always an uphill task. He celebrated his 80th birthday on 27 September when he announced that the upcoming Shah Rukh Khan romantic drama Jab Tak Hai Jaan will be his last movie as a director. Chopra is survived by wife Pamela Chopra and sons Aditya and Uday Chopra.
The illustrious film maker was born in pre-independence Lahore in 1932 and is the younger brother to noted film maker B R Chopra. He came to Mumbai with Rs 200 on him and began his career by assisting I S Johar. He debuted as a director with Dhool ke Phool, a social drama starring Mala Sinha and Rajendra Kumar and dealt with the trials of a single unwed mother. He went on to make 22 films as a director across genres like social dramas, romance, action and suspense thrillers.
Waqt, Silsila, Kabhi Kabhi, Daag, Deewar, Trishul, Chandni, Lamhe, Darr and Veer Zaara are among his most remembered and successful directorial ventures. Chopra has also been credited for moulding the screen images of Amitabh Bachchan as the ‘angry young man‘ (with Deewar) and Shah Rukh Khan as the quintessential romantic leading man (Dil Toh Paagal Hai and Veer Zaara).
Chopra is the force behind one of the biggest production houses in the country – Yash Raj Films (YRF) which he started in 1971. Till then his movies were produced by elder brother B R Chopra and movie mogul of that time Gulshan Rai. Rajesh Khanna starrer Daag was the first movie produced under the banner. YRF is perhaps the most successful privately held studio in the country and has also been instrumental in changing the overseas distribution business in India.
The production house has produced some of the highest grossing movies of their times like Chak De India! (Rs 1.04 billion worldwide in 2007), Ek Tha Tiger (Rs 3.07 billion in 2012), Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (Rs 1.58 billion worldwide in 2008) and Dhoom and its sequel Dhoom 2 (in 2004 and 2006 respectively; combined worldwide collection of Rs 2.23 billion).
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.
