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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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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.
