I&B Ministry
ZILS sights break-even; announces tie-up with Karnataka government
The newspapers are filled with reports about the ongoing slowdown in the infotech sector. Nonetheless Zee Interactive Learning Systems (ZILS), which is less than two years old, says that it is all set to break even by next year with a turnover of Rs 1 billion.
ZILS is the wholly owned subsidiary of Zee Telefilms. In a Rs 20-billion information technology education market, ZILS claims to have crossed the Rs 300 million mark for the year 2000-2001 and is bullish on hitting Rs 3 billion by 2004.
Meanwhile, the Karnataka Government has chosen the company to be its training partner in the `Mahithi Sindhu’ scheme. The Karnataka government saw value in ZILS’s credible alliances, domain knowledge, technology expertise and experience in generating multimedia content, a company spokesperson said.
Under the `Mahithi Sindhu’ scheme, ZILS will implement computer based education in 1,000 government high schools. The company will develop software for the subject – Science from Standards VIII – X. Side by side teachers will be trained.
All this is part of the initiative of The Department of State Education Research & Training. DSERT is a body of the Karnataka government which is responsible for implementing computer-based education to government high schools in the state.
The software installed will be in English and Kannada. So students will find it easy to follow and they will be able to use it in an effective manner. The software will entertain and educate through interactive features, animation, voiceover, graphics, pop-up questions. There will also be video clips based on imaginative analogies and components locally available and which children notice in day to day existence.
ZILS CEO Dilip Mahapatra had these remarks to make: The Schools Board prepares the syllabus, the course structure and conducts the examinations. We provide the infrastructure for conducting the courses. We make these courses interactive. IT education is becoming an integral part of most of the upper crust schools. We have identified 15,000 schools in the country that are imparting IT education or are planning to introduce it in the near future.”
Besides this ZILS has already prepared customised multimedia courses in Mathematics, Science and English for Standard VIII – X. This is aimed at the CBSE, ICSE and SSC boards. Right now the company is working on preparing the course in Geography. ZILS plans to provide software to the schools abroad.
ZILS also offers Information Technology solutions for teachers and school’s management. ZILS has developed an Internet-based software. Therefore the school’s task of track a student’s progress based on their mark sheets, home assignments, attendance and discipline records is made all the more easy.
The company has also made its mark in the corporate world. It claims to have trained Insurance agents from companies like Reliance, ICICI- Lombard, Bajaj Allianz and Royal Sundaram. Zee Interactive Learning Systems is the training partner of Institute of Company Secretary of India (ICSI) for training students pursuing the Company Secretary course.
I&B Ministry
India turns up the heat on piracy, orders Telegram to axe 3,142 channels and blocks 800 websites
New legal teeth, nodal officers and notices to intermediaries signal that the government is done playing nice with copyright thieves
NEW DELHI: India’s war on film piracy just got significantly more aggressive. The government has ordered Telegram to remove 3,142 channels distributing pirated content, blocked access to around 800 websites through internet service providers, and put the full weight of freshly sharpened legislation behind the crackdown. The message from New Delhi is unambiguous: the free ride for copyright thieves is over.
Minister of state for information and broadcasting L. Murugan spelled out the legal architecture to the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. The Cinematograph (Amendment) Act, 2023, he said, now contains specific provisions designed to make piracy a genuinely painful proposition. Sections 6AA and 6AB prohibit unauthorised recording and transmission of films, with violations attracting a minimum of three months’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs 3 lakh. At the upper end, offenders face three years behind bars and fines of up to 5 per cent of a film’s audited gross production cost — a figure that, for a big-budget production, could run into crores.
The legislation also gives the government powers to act against intermediaries hosting infringing content, by notifying them under Section 79(3) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and compelling takedowns and blocking actions. Under Section 79(3)(b), intermediaries are legally required to remove or disable access to unlawful content upon receiving government notice or court orders. The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, add a further layer of obligation, requiring platforms to ensure their services are not used to host or distribute content that violates copyright or proprietary rights.
To put enforcement into practice, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has established a dedicated institutional mechanism, complete with nodal officers to receive complaints. Copyright holders, authorised representatives or individuals can report piracy through a prescribed format, after which the government issues notices to intermediaries to disable access to infringing links.
The most headline-grabbing action came on 11 March 2026, when Telegram was formally notified under Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act and directed to remove and disable 3,142 channels found to be distributing unauthorised content belonging to OTT platforms, content owners and producers. The complaints that triggered the action came from OTT platforms including JioCinema and Amazon Prime Video, which alleged that copyrighted films, web series and other material were being shared on the platform on a massive scale. Telegram’s architecture, with its large file-sharing limits and capacity for user anonymity, has made it a favoured vehicle for exactly this kind of large-scale piracy.
The Telegram action sits within a broader pattern of escalating enforcement. Just days before the Lok Sabha statement, the ministry banned five OTT platforms for streaming obscene content: MoodXVIP, Koyal Playpro, Digi Movieplex, Feel and Jugnu. In July 2025, the Centre ordered the blocking of 25 OTT platforms accused of streaming obscene, vulgar or pornographic material, a list that included ALTT, ULLU, Big Shots App, Desiflix, Boomex, Navarasa Lite, Gulab App, Kangan App, Bull App, Jalva App, ShowHit, Wow Entertainment, Look Entertainment, Hitprime, Feneo, ShowX, Sol Talkies, Adda TV, HotX VIP, Hulchul App, MoodX, NeonX VIP, Fugi, Mojflix and Triflicks.
Rule 3(1)(b) of the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, provides the regulatory hook for those actions, prohibiting platforms from hosting content that is obscene, pornographic, invasive of privacy, gender-harassing, racially or ethnically objectionable, or that promotes hatred and violence.
For an industry that loses billions of rupees annually to piracy, the direction of travel is welcome. The question, as always, is not whether the laws exist, but whether the enforcement machinery can keep pace with the ingenuity of those determined to circumvent it. Three thousand channels down, and the pirates are already busy opening three thousand more.
