Hindi
Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara romps home with the Black Lady, Aruna Irani Gets Lifetime Award
NEW DELHI: Thespian Aruna Irani who has achieved fame as an item girl, heroine, vamp a comedienne, and a producer-director, received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 57th Filmfare Awards held in Mumbai.
‘Zindagi na milegi Dobara‘ won the best film award and its director Zoya Akhtar was named best director with her brother Farhan Akhtar bagging the best supporting actor award for males in the popular awards. The film was also voted best film by the Critics Jury.
‘Rockstar‘ by Imtiaz Ali bagged awards for actor Ranbir Kapoor in both the popular and critics categories. This year‘s Idea Filmfare Awards held a special significance as the 2500th trophy was presented at the award ceremony, to maestro AR Rahman for ‘Rockstar‘. Irshad Kamil also bagged the best lyric award for the song ‘Nadaan Parinday‘ and Mohit Chauhan won it for singing the song ‘Jo bhi mein‘ in this film.
Vidya Balan got the best actress award for essaying the role of Silk Smitha in the film ‘The Dirty Picture‘, while ‘No one killed Jessica‘ won awards for supporting actor (female) for Rani Mukerji.
‘The Dirty Picture‘ also got awards for best costume for Niharika Khan, and Idea Sony Scene of the Year.
‘Delhi Belly‘ got awards for best debutante Director Abhinay Deo, art direction for Shashank Tere, editing for Huzefa Lokhandawala, and best screenplay for Akshat Verma.
‘Don 2‘ won awards for best sound design for Nakul Kamte, best action to Action Concepts, and Best Special Effects to Red Chillies VFX.
‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara‘ also got the cinematography award for Carlos Catalon, the choreography award for Bosco Caesar, and best dialogue to Farhan Akhtar.
Best debutante male and female awards went to Vidyut Jamal for ‘Force‘ and Parineeti Chopra for ‘Ladies vs Ricky Bahl‘.
The RD Burman award for Upcoming talent in field of music went to KRSNA for ‘Tanu Weds Manu‘ while the best background score went to Ranjit Barot for ‘Shaitan‘.
Sanjay Chouhan got the best story award for ‘I am Kalam‘, while the Special Jury Certificate for Outstanding Talent went to Partho Gupte for the film ‘Stanley ka Dabba‘.
The Idea Filmfare Awards 2011 held at the Reliance MediaWorks Studios in the Film City in Goregoan. The Awards ceremony was hosted by Shahrukh Khan and Ranbir Kapoor, and the recording will be telecast on Sony Entertainment Television on 19 February.
Hindi
India’s telecom subscribers cross 1.32 billion in February 2026
Broadband base swells past 1.06 billion as Jio and Airtel tighten grip on the market.
MUMBAI: India’s telecom sector is ringing in steady growth once again adding millions of new connections every month while the race for broadband supremacy continues to heat up like a fiercely contested cricket match. According to the latest data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on 1 April 2026, the total telephone subscriber base in the country reached 1,321.31 million at the end of February 2026. This marked a net addition of 7.31 million subscribers during the month, translating into a monthly growth rate of 0.56 per cent.
Wireless subscribers (including mobile and Fixed Wireless Access) stood at 1,273.31 million, registering a net addition of 6.97 million and a growth rate of 0.55 per cent. Within this, urban wireless connections grew to 730.75 million (growth 0.70 per cent), while rural wireless subscribers reached 542.56 million (growth 0.35 per cent).
Wireline subscribers, though much smaller in scale, showed slightly faster growth. The total wireline base increased to 47.99 million, with a net addition of 0.34 million and a monthly growth rate of 0.70 per cent. Urban areas continued to dominate wireline connections with a share of 89.41 per cent.
Overall tele-density in India improved to 92.66 per cent. Urban tele-density stood at 150.68 per cent, while rural tele-density edged up to 60.02 per cent.
The broadband subscriber base crossed a significant milestone, reaching 1,059.05 million at the end of February 2026. This reflected a healthy net addition of 6.33 million subscribers and a monthly growth rate of 0.60 per cent from January’s figure of 1,052.72 million.
Segment-wise, mobile wireless access continued to drive the majority of growth with 996.52 million subscribers. Fixed Wireless Access (including 5G FWA) added 16.51 million, while wired broadband stood at 46.02 million.
Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. maintained its commanding lead with 519.64 million broadband subscribers. Bharti Airtel Ltd. followed with 364.14 million, Vodafone Idea Ltd. with 129.36 million, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. with 28.70 million, and Atria Convergence Technologies Ltd. with 2.38 million.
Together, these top five players command a massive 98.60 per cent share of the total broadband market.
In the wireless (mobile) segment, private operators continued to dominate with 92.59 per cent market share, leaving public sector undertakings (BSNL and MTNL) with just 7.41 per cent.
Out of the total 1,257.29 million wireless (mobile) subscribers, 1,177.60 million were active on the peak Visitor Location Register (VLR) date, representing an impressive 93.66 per cent activity rate. Bharti Airtel led in this metric with 99.42 per cent of its subscribers active.
Meanwhile, 14.47 million subscribers submitted requests for Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in February, indicating healthy competition and customer churn across zones.
While urban areas still lead in absolute numbers, rural connectivity is slowly catching up. Rural wireless tele-density stood at 59.46 per cent, compared with the much higher urban figure of 142.32 per cent.
Fixed Wireless Access using 5G technology also showed promising traction, growing to 11.93 million subscribers. Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel are the primary players driving this segment.
The data paints a picture of a maturing yet still rapidly expanding telecom ecosystem. With total telephone subscribers now well past the 1.32 billion mark and broadband users comfortably above 1.06 billion, India continues to solidify its position as one of the world’s largest and most dynamic digital markets.
From bustling city streets to remote villages, more Indians are staying connected than ever before proving that when it comes to telecom, the country’s appetite for growth shows no signs of hanging up anytime soon.
