iWorld
ZEE5 ropes in Tata Elxsi for front-end development
MUMBAI: ZEE5, the new OTT platform by Zee Entertainment Enterprises, has partnered with Tata Elxsi for its front-end application development. Tata Elxsi has driven the integration of ZEE5 with the video backend, multi-lingual front-end user experience and multi-CDN networks.
Zee International and Z5 Global CEO Amit Goenka said, “With language as its central proposition, ZEE5 is a digital entertainment platform for every Indian, irrespective of what language they speak and how tech savvy they are. Considering this varied user base, we have used superbly sophisticated technology to make the platform extremely easy to use, with features like display language and content-language selection, voice search and download to watch offline. Tata Elxsi brings in great technical expertise and domain knowledge, and has been a key partner for us in enabling a great user experience on ZEE5.”
At the device level, the Tata Elxsi teams have powered the next generation voice-based user interfaces and integration with multiple DRMs on Android, iOS, Web as well as Android TVs.
Tata Elxsi VP and head – broadcast business unit K P Sreekumar said, “We congratulate ZEE Entertainment on the successful launch of ZEE5. This next generation platform is a key milestone for the industry. With its unique multi-lingual, multi-screen offering, ZEE5 sets a new bar as far as personalised viewer experience is concerned, with its 11 display language options, 12 content language options, download and watch offline and voice search features.”
The app offers the originals, Indian and international movies and TV shows, music, live TV, and health and lifestyle content across 12 languages.
iWorld
Akhil Gupta retires as Bharti Enterprises vice chairman after three decades
The man who outsourced Airtel’s network and built Indus Towers leaves behind a telecom industry transformed
NEW DELHI: He was not the most visible face of Bharti. He was, by most accounts, the most consequential one. Akhil Gupta, known within the group simply as AKG, has retired as vice chairman of Bharti Enterprises with effect from March 31st, 2026, closing a chapter that stretched across more than three decades and reshaped Indian telecoms in ways still felt today.
Gupta was there at the beginning, part of the core leadership team that steered Bharti Airtel from a scrappy domestic operator into one of the world’s largest telecom and digital services companies. But it is two decisions in particular that cement his legacy. The first was persuading the industry that a telecom company need not own its own network. His outsourcing partnerships with IBM and Ericsson, considered eccentric at the time, stripped out capital costs and sharpened Airtel’s competitive edge. The model was subsequently copied across the global industry. The second was the creation of Indus Towers, now one of the largest tower companies in the world.
Both initiatives were studied as case material at Harvard Business School, where Gupta himself had studied. A chartered accountant by training and a dealmaker by instinct, he accumulated industry accolades across his career without ever particularly courting the limelight.
Bharti Enterprises, announcing the retirement on LinkedIn, credited Gupta with building the foundation of the group’s success and driving innovation, partnerships and long-term value creation.
The tributes are deserved. Gupta did not just help build Airtel. In many respects, he helped invent the playbook that modern telecoms runs on.
