Hindi
IFFI Preview Committee includes film certification panel members
NEW DELHI: A 40-member preview committee with Vivek Agnihotri as the convenor has been set up to continue the process of shortlisting of films for the International Film Festival of India 2017 being held in November this year.
Indiantelevision.com had reported yesterday that the preview committee for shortlisting films for IFFI which had already seen around 150 films had also been dissolved. These changes have coincided with Smriti Zubin Irani taking on additional charge of the information and broadcasting ministry after M Venkaiah Naidu resigned.
The preview committee not merely shortlists films from all entries received, but recommends films for competition section which will then be seen by the International jury, and for the Country Focus section of the Festival.
IFFI, which is considered as one of the top ten film festivals of the world will be held from 20 to 28 November at Panaji in Goa.
The festival is organised by the Directorate of Film Festivals of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry in collaboration with the Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG) on behalf of the state government.
A four-day Film Bazaar will also be organized from 20 November by the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC).
Generally most members of the preview committee are from Delhi as the process of shortlisting takes more than a month and the preview is done at one of the auditoriums in the Sirifort complex in the capital.
Furthermore, the names of members are not revealed to prevent any external influences.
However a majority of the members this time are from different parts of the country and this will entail infrastructural arrangements including travel and stay of the members. Only a handful of members are from Delhi.
The list reveals that the names have been shortlisted on the recommendations of the Central Board of Film Certification and regional certification panels and many are members of CBFC and regional panels. Furthermore, just a few members have exposure to international cinema.
The Preview Committeee now comprises:
|
1. |
Vivek Agnihotri |
|---|---|
|
2. |
Khalid Mohamed |
|
3. |
Aarti Bajaj |
|
4. |
Ramesh Patange |
|
5. |
Naresh Chander Lal |
|
6. |
Narendra Kohli |
|
7. |
Saibal Chatterjee |
|
8. |
Abhimanyu Singh |
|
9. |
Bhawana Somaaya |
|
10. |
Jeevitha Rajasekhar |
|
11. |
Gautami Tadimalla |
|
12. |
Nitesh Tiwari |
|
13. |
G.S. Bhaskar |
|
14. |
Pallavi Joshi |
|
15. |
Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury |
|
16. |
Raja Krishna Menon |
|
17. |
Siddharth Kak |
|
18. |
Bela Segal |
|
19. |
Tarun Katial |
|
20. |
Abhishek Basu |
|
21. |
Hrishitaa Bhatt |
|
22. |
Abhishek Jain |
|
23. |
Santwana Bordoloi |
|
24. |
Bhaskar Hazarika |
|
25. |
Pradip Kurbah |
|
26. |
Dominic Megam Sangma |
|
27. |
Maipaksana Haorongbam |
|
28. |
Zuala Chhangte |
|
29. |
Dr. Sachidanand Joshi |
|
30. |
Dr. Bharat Gupt |
|
31. |
Nirmala Sharma |
|
32. |
Rathi Vinay Jha |
|
33. |
Parvathi Menon |
|
34. |
Rajesh Kumar Singh |
|
35. |
Anil Rastogi |
|
36. |
Punit Asthana |
|
37. |
Ajay Malkani |
|
38. |
Bhumenjoy Konsam |
|
39. |
Sangee Dorjee Thongdok |
|
40. |
Lavlin Thadani |
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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.
