Applications
Saavn and Twitter create tweet-powered internet radio station
NEW DELHI: Digital streaming service Saavn has launched @SaavnRadio in collaboration with Twitter India.
The new station, available for streaming globally on Saavn Radio, is the first in a series of upcoming social media and sharing integrations for Saavn. The partnership reflects Twitter’s continued efforts to create opportunities for artists on Twitter to be discovered, as well as to surface amazing music content that fans in India and around the world can enjoy.
The @SaavnRadio lineup will be curated via interactions between Saavn users and Twitter, and will refresh every few minutes.
To directly influence the station’s programming, users worldwide can tweet @SaavnRadio to request a song from Saavn’s robust catalog of Indian music. In India, users can request tracks from English-language artists, as well. The station will also update based on Saavn users’ shared listening activity on Twitter. Explicit requests will be prioritized over shared songs in each refresh interval.
Saavn co-founder and CEO Rishi Malhotra said, “Social is more than a feature, it’s part of the DNA of streaming music, so this is an extremely powerful partnership for us. Our listeners regularly tweet their Saavn activity and playlists. We worked with the great team at Twitter to develop the user-generated radio station, completely driven by real time activity across the globe. We’ve always pushed the limits to deliver a great product experience to millions of users daily, so we’re truly honored to be the company that’s delivering this experience with Twitter.”
The technical integration will include a Twitter handle to confirm user requests. Users will also receive a @mention alert when their requests are played.
“Twitter always has and will continue to encourage innovation in the way the world experiences music. Saavn is the perfect company to work with as we look to contribute to music accessibility and music discovery for our international users, particularly in the Asian market, in an age where social sharing has no borders,” said Twitter business development India and south east Asia director Arvinder Gujral.
Applications
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.
