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Vedanta-owned Sterlite bags order to provide STBs to Arasu Cable
MUMBAI: Pune-based Sterlite Technologies has got the order for supplying two lakh set-top boxes to Tamil Nadu government-owned Arasu Cable TV Corporation Limited (ACTCL), according to a top executive.
Sterlite Technologies, a leading global provider of transmission solutions for the power and telecom industries, is part of the Vedanta Group which has interests in aluminium, copper, zinc, lead, silver, iron ore, oil and gas and power.
ACTCL had floated a global tender for the process of procuring STBs which also saw the participation of Wipro and Shaf Broadcast among others.
The multi-system operator (MSO), which is yet to receive a DAS licence, needs one million STBs for digitisation.
"Sterlite Technologies has got the contract for supplying two lakh boxes. We had advertised for one million boxes," ACTCL managing director D Vivekanandan confirmed to Indiantelevision.com.
Vivekanandan said that the decision whether to order more boxes from Sterlite or some other company would be taken depending upon the speed of supply.
The state-run Arasu is expecting to receive the DAS licence, for which it had applied on 5 July, soon. "It is only about time that we will get the licence. We hope to get it soon," Vivekanandan affirmed.
However, the I&B ministry is mulling whether state-owned cable networks should be given licence to operate.
Vivekanandan, though, has a different take on the matter. "As of now there is no rule to bar Arasu from having a licence," he said.
Arasu, which has a firm grip on cable distribution across Tamil Nadu, had extended its cable TV services to the metro on 20 October. ACTCL had said that it would offer 200 channels to the viewers in Chennai.
The cable TV corporation had also placed ads in in the run up to digitisation urging people to register for STBs through an advance payment of Rs 500 per STB.
"We have received advance payments for 30,000 boxes while LCOs have requested for about nine lakh boxes. The response has been good," Vivekanandan noted.
Earlier, Arasu Cable had floated a tender for providing digital head-ends, STBs, encryption solutions and subscriber management system (SMS) but cancelled it because it found the costs too high.
As per data provided by the Information and Broadcasting ministry, the digital cable penetration in Chennai with 0.7 million subscribes stands at 63 per cent.
The implementation of digitisation has been put on hold due to a stay order from Madras High Court on a petition filed by cable operators. The case is pending in the Court and will next come up for hearing on 28 December.
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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.
