Hindi
Producer, trade analyst and editor Vikas Mohan no more
NEW DELHI: Renowned Bollywood analyst and film producer Vikas Mohan passed away today, aged 65. Mohan who was founder editor of the film trade paper ‘Super Cinema’ suffered a heart attack yesterday evening and was hospitalized. His end came early this morning.
Mohan is survived by his wife and two sons who were presently working with him on his magazine. Mohan had undergone a by-pass surgery around two decades earlier.
Vikas had produced the Gulzar-directed ‘Libaas’ in 1988 earlier which became a national award winner and later produced the film “Arzoo” in 1999 starring Akshay Kumar and Madhuri Dixit.
The last rites were held this afternoon in the presence of a large number of Bollywood celebrities and media persons.
Prior to launching ‘Super Cinema’, Mohan had been editor of ‘Complete Cinema’ which is now edited by his brother Kumar Mohan.
Known to always help out filmmakers, at least nine other Bollywood films including ‘Shagird’, ‘No Problem’, ‘Action Replayy’, ‘Akrosh’, ‘Anjaane’ and ‘Page 3’ carried special or sincere thanks to him in the credits.
Several Bollywood celebrities mourned the death of Mohan. They described him as a respected and wonderful human being.
Megastar Amitabh Bachchan tweeted: “Vikas Mohan, senior journalist owner of Trade magazine, eminent member of film association passes away. Our prayers and condolences.”
Filmmaker Karan Johar in a tweet called him a “a truly respected and loved member of our fraternity… Always helpful and supportive…thoughts and prayers to the family”.
RIP Vikas Mohan…a truly respected and loved member of our fraternity…always helpful and supportive…thoughts and prayers to the family
Filmmaker-actor Satish Kaushik paid condolences on the “demise of dear friend Vikas Mohan… May his soul rest in peace”. He tweeted: Sad to hear abt demise of dear friend # Vikas Mohan..my heartfelt condolences to @amul_mohan and mohan family..may his soul rest in peace..
Veteran actor Anupam Kher said: “Deeply saddened to know about the demise of Vikas Mohan ji. Apart from a veteran film trade analyst, he was wonderful and helpful human being.”
Filmmaker Hansal Mehta, saddened by the news of Mohan’s passing away, remembered him as an “always helpful and supportive” person.
Actor Hrithik Roshan shared that Mohan was “one of the most dignified honest and respected journalist”, while actress Sophie Choudry said he was “always so full of life”.
Bipasha Basu: You will be missed Vikas Mohanji. RIP Strength to Amul Mohan, Anshul and family.
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.
