Hindi
Zohra Sehgal – the artiste with an infectious smile, is no more
NEW DELHI: Veteran actress Zohra Sehgal – who was known for her charming smile and keen sense of timing – passed away in the capital on 10 July at 4:00 pm.
Zohra, who had turned 102 on 27 April this year, felt uneasiness after dinner on 9 July night and was rushed to Max Hospital in south Delhi. Her family confirmed that she had a cardiac arrest in the afternoon.
She is survived by her son Pavan and her daughter (eminent danseuse Kiran Sehgal), and four grandchildren.
Born in 1912, she started her career as a dancer in choreographer Uday Shankar’s troupe. From 1935 to 1943, she was a leading dancer with the troupe and performed across the world including the United States and Japan.
As an actress, Zohra appeared in varied roles that showed her range as an artiste. She had last appeared in the 2007 film ‘Saawariya’.
She has appeared in just over 50 films and television series starting with K A Abbas’ debut film Dharti ke Lal in 1946.
Some of her better remembered films are Bhaji on the Beach (1992), The Mystic Masseur (2001), Bend It Like Beckham (2002), Dil Se (1998) and Cheeni Kum (2007); Hum Dil De Chuke sanam (1999), Veer Zara (2004), and the TV series, The Jewel in the Crown (1984), Tandoori Nights (1985–87), Amma and Family (1996).
At the age of 90, she got the lead character around whom the story revolved in 2002 film Chalo Ishq Ladaaye, where she had stunt sequences, emotional scenes, etc. Considered the doyenne of Indian theatre, she acted with Indian People’s Theatre Association and Prithviraj Kapoor’s Prithvi Theatre for 14 years.
Zohra received the Padma Shri in 1998, Padma Vibhushan (2010), the Kalidas Samman in 2001, and in 2004, the Sangeet Natak Akademi’s highest award, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship for lifetime achievement.
Born as Sahibzadi Zohra Begum Mumtaz-ullah Khan into a traditional Muslim family in Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, to Mumtazullah Khan and Natiqua Begum, belonging to Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, she was the third of seven. She was a tomboy fond of climbing trees and playing games. Zohra lost vision in her left eye as she contracted glaucoma at the age of one year. She was referred to a hospital in Birmingham where she was treated.
She lost her mother while still young. According to her mother’s wishes, she and her sister were sent to Queen Mary College in Lahore (then part of undivided India). Her maternal uncle Sahebzada Saeeduzzafar Khan who was based in Edinburgh arranged for her to apprentice under a British actor. In Europe, her aunt Dicta took her to try in the Mary Wigman’s ballet school in Dresden, Germany, but she had not ever danced. She got admission and became the first Indian to study at the institution. She stayed in Dresden for the next three years studying modern dance, while living in the house of Countess Liebenstein. She happened to watch the Shiv-Parvati ballet by Uday Shankar who was touring Europe and this marked a turning point. He promised her a job on return to India.
But even before she came back, she received a telegram from Uday Shankar asking her to accompany on a tour to Japan. On 8 August 1935, she joined his troupe and danced across Japan, Egypt, Europe and the US, as a leading lady, along with French dancer Simkie. When Uday Shankar moved back to India in 1940, she became a teacher at the Uday Shankar India Cultural Centre at Almora.
It was here that she met her future husband Kameshwar Sehgal, a young scientist, painter and dancer from Indore, eight years her junior. They married on 14 August 1942 and had two children, Kiran and Pavan. For a while the couple worked in Uday’s dance institute at Almora. Both became accomplished dancers and choreographers. Kameshwar composed a noted ballet for human puppets and choreographed the ballet Lotus Dance. When it shut down later, they migrated to Lahore and set up their own Zohresh Dance Institute.
Because of the growing communal tension preceding the Partition of India, they returned to Mumbai where her sister Uzra was already working with Prithvi Theatres. She joined Prithvi Theatre in 1945 as an actress with a monthly salary of Rs 400, and toured every city across India with the group for the next 14 years.
She also joined IPTA and acted in several plays, and made her film debut in IPTA’s first film production, directed by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, Dharti Ke Lal in 1946; she followed it up with another IPTA-supported film, Chetan Anand’s Neecha Nagar which became India’s first film to go to Cannes and won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
She also did the choreography for several Hindi films, including Guru Dutt’s Baazi (1951) and the dream sequence song in Raj Kapoor’s film Awaara.Kameshwar, on the other hand, became art director in Hindi films and later tried his hand at film direction.
After her husband’s death in 1959, Zohra first moved to Delhi and became director of the newly founded Natya Academy. She then moved to London on a drama scholarship in 1962.Her first role for British television was in a BBC adaptation of a Kipling story, The Rescue of Pluffles, in 1964. She also anchored 26 episodes of BBC TV series, Padosi (Neighbours; 1976–77).
In London, Zohra got her first break in the films and was signed by Merchant Ivory Productions. She appeared in The Courtesans of Bombay directed by James Ivory in 1982. This paved way for an important role as Lady Chatterjee in the television adaptation The Jewel in the Crown (ITV, 1984). She then acted in several other films and TV series before returning to India.
She returned to India in the mid-1990s and lived for a few months in Burdwan. At that time she acted in several films, plays and TV series since. She first performed poetry at a memorial to Uday Shankar organised by his brother, Ravi Shankar in 1983, and soon took it in big way; she started getting invited to perform poetry at various occasions. She even traveled to Pakistan to recite verses for “An Evening with Zohra”. Her impromptu performances of Punjabi and Urdu became a norm. After stage performances she was often requested by the audience to recite Hafeez Jullundhri’s famous nazm, Abhi To Main Jawan Hoon.
In 1993, a critically acclaimed play, Ek Thi Nani, was staged in Lahore for the first time, featuring Zohra and her sister Uzra Butt now staying in Pakistan. The English version, A Granny for All Seasons, was held at UCLA in 2001. In 2008, at the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF)-Laadli Media Awards in New Delhi, she was named Laadli of the century.
In 2014, she became the longest-living actor to have appeared on Doctor Who, as well as the first centenarian associated with the show. The second is Olaf Pooley, who celebrated his 100th birthday on 13 March 2014.
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.
