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Trai asked to expedite views on govt entities in cable TV after Jayalalitha letter
MUMBAI: The Information & Broadcasting ministry has asked the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to expedite the process of re-examining granting of Digital Addressable System (DAS) licence to a government or government-owned entity.
The move comes in the wake of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha writing to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to expedite the matter of granting DAS licence to the state government-owned cable distribution company Arasu Cable TV Corporation, which has been hanging fire for more than five months.
"There is a larger question. I am aware of the concerns raised by the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister. The Members of Parliament have also come and met me. That is why we have requested the TRAI chairperson to expedite their consideration… so that we can take a conclusive decision at the earliest," I&B minister Manish Tewari said.
"We have referred the matter back to the TRAI for reconsideration as to whether the state government or the central government entities should be allowed in the broadcasting or the distribution business," Tewari added.
Arasu, the dominant MSO in Tamil Nadu, applied for DAS licence on 5 July but is yet to get the licence as the government is mulling whether or not to grant broadcasting or the distribution licences to government-owned entities.
The government has till date issued DAS licence to 11 MSOs in Chennai.
While acknowledging that Arasu was granted a license in 2008, he said that there was a recommendation from Trai which doesn‘t allow state government or their instrumentalities to enter distribution or in the broadcasting business.
Arasu has already placed orders for the supply of Set Top Boxes (STBs), Conditional Access System and Subscriber Management System and erection of Head-End at a cost of about Rs 500 million.
Arasu, which was lying defunct under the DMK regime, was revived by AIADMK government after it stormed to power in April last year.
It commenced cable TV services in all the 31 Districts of Tamil Nadu on 2 September, 2011 barring Chennai, which was a conditional access system area.
Arasu Cable is providing 100 channels to the subscribers at a cost of Rs 70 per month per subscriber. It has 23,000 local cable operators in its network with a subscriber base of six million.
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With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
