Hindi
Rajnikanth, Ramoji Rao, Priyanka Chopra, Ajay Devgn receive Padma honours
NEW DELHI: Iconic actor Rajnikanth, media and film magnate Ramoji Rao, and renowned classical vocalist Girija Devi have been named for the second highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan, given for is awarded for exceptional and distinguished service.
Interestingly, the Padma Vibhushan awardees also include a posthumous award for the late Dhirubhai Ambani, who founded the Reliance Group and whose life inspired the film Guru starring Abhishek Bachchan with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.
Veteran actor Anupam Kher and singer Udit Narayan are the only recipients from the entertainment industry apart from Heisnam Kanhaukak of the Padma Bhushan, given for distinguished service of high order. Indu Jain of Bennett Coleman & Co also received the Padma Bhushan.
The Padma Shri awardees for distinguished service from the entertainment field include directors Nila Madhab Panda (I want to be Kalam), S S Rajamouli (of Baahubali fame) and Madhur Bhandarkar; filmmaker Narendra Chandra Lal from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands; actors Ajay Devgn and Priyanka Chopra, ad guru Piyush Pandey; and a posthumous award to the late veteran actor Saeed Jaffrey.
In a statement issued from Bulgaria where he is currently shooting for his film, Shivaay, Devgn said, “I feel deeply humbled yet elated to receive such honour from my own country. The announcement today makes it special for me when I’m filming abroad for my new film Shivaay. I’d like to acknowledge that Padma Samman puts an extra responsibility on me and I promise to serve my country for as long as I can.”
In the field of sports, the Padma Bhushan awards are badminton ace Saina Nehwal, and tennis star Sania Mirza, while those getting Padma Shree are Deepika Kumari for archery from Jharkhand, and sports commentator Sushi Doshi.
In the field of music, the Padma Shree recepients are Pt Tulsidas Borkar of Goa for classical music; Dr Suma Ghosh of Uttar Pradesh for vocal singing; and Bhikhudan Gadhvi of Gujarat, Mamta Chandrakar of Chhatisgarh, and Bhojpuri singer Malini Awasthi of Uttar Pradesh for folk music, and late Prakash Chand Surana (posthumously) of Rajasthan for classical music.
The eminent dancer Yamini Krishnamurthy who has churned thousands of disciples gets the Padma Bhushan, dancer Pratibha Prahlad who founded the Delhi International Arts Festival, and Gulabi Sapera, who is a folk dancer from Rajasthan have been awarded the Padma Shree.
Renowned professor Pushpesh Pant; Kameshwar Brahma of Assam, and Jawaharlal Kaul of Jammu and Kashmir have also been awarded the Padma Shree.
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.
