Applications
3G auction to be completed by early April
NEW DELHI: The much-awaited 3G auction is to start on 9 April and the BWA auctions will be held two days after the close of the 3G auction.
The notice for inviting auctions will be issued on 25 February and these will close on 19 March.
Details of ownership of the applicants will be published on 26 March and the pre-qualification of bidders will be decided on 30 March.
The mock auctions will be held on 5 and 6 April.
Earlier, Parliament had been informed that the response of domestic telecom service providers was reasonably good, and foreign companies had not been specifically invited for the pre-bid conference on 16 November 2009 relating to prospective 3G and BWA spectrum auction participants.
It was clarified that the Notice Inviting Application (NIA) will address all the concerns expressed during the pre-bid conference.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) had in October 2009 issued a Consultation Paper on “Overall Spectrum Management and review of license terms and conditions”. The issues raised in the consultation paper for deliberation include spectrum requirement & availability, licensing issues, merger & acquisition issues, spectrum trading, spectrum sharing, perpetuity of licences, uniform licence fee, spectrum assignment, spectrum pricing and structure for spectrum management.
The Government earned Rs 34.55 billion from spectrum fee during 2008-09 and about Rs 9.17 billion in the first quarter of 2009-10.
Spectrum fee is charged as a percentage of the Adjusted Gross Revenue of the telecom service providers and is regulated by the Trai.
Detailed guidelines for 3G spectrum were issued on 1 August 2008 and some amendments were brought in on 11 September the same year.
At present, only the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) and the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) have permission to provide 3G services in the country.
While MTNL and BSNL will not take part in the auction for 3G services in the telecom sector, they will pay the matching price of successful bidders.
While MTNL provides the service in Mumbai and Delhi, BSNL provides the services in 100 cities. One spectrum of 5 MHz has been provided to MTNL in Mumbai and Delhi and BSNL in the 20 service areas.
Applications
Inshorts Group chief Deepit Purkayastha joins IAB video council for Southeast Asia and India
The co-founder and chief executive of the short-form content platform has been inducted into the IAB SEA+India Video Council, giving India a stronger voice in shaping digital video frameworks
NOIDA: India has long been the world’s most chaotic, multilingual and mobile-first digital market. Now, one of its most prominent short-video executives is getting a seat at the table where the rules are written.
Deepit Purkayastha, co-founder and chief executive of Inshorts Group, has been selected as a member of the IAB SEA+India Video Council for 2026. Run by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the council brings together senior leaders from Southeast Asia and India to shape standards, best practices and measurement frameworks for the fast-evolving video and digital advertising ecosystem.
The timing is pointed. According to the IAMAI-Kantar Internet in India Report 2025, over 588 million Indians are now consuming short-video content, with growth increasingly driven by rural and non-metro audiences. India’s active internet user base has crossed 950 million, with 57 per cent of users now coming from rural markets. Yet the frameworks that govern how video consumption is measured and monetised were largely designed for single-language, Western markets and have struggled to keep pace with the scale, diversity and complexity of India’s digital landscape.
Purkayastha is no stranger to these debates. He already serves on the AI Council at Marketing and Media Alliance India and as co-chair of the Digital Entertainment Committee at the Internet and Mobile Association of India. His induction into the IAB SEA+India Video Council extends that influence into the global video standards arena.
Inshorts Group sits squarely at the intersection of these forces. Its flagship product, Inshorts, India’s highest-rated short news app, reaches 12 million active users with 60-word news summaries. Its sister platform, Public App, reaches 80 million monthly active users across more than 700 districts and 12 languages, serving communities that most global platforms barely register.
Purkayastha said the opportunity was about building something more representative. “India today sits at the centre of the global video ecosystem, but the frameworks that define how value is created and measured have not always kept pace with the realities of our market,” he said. “Being part of the IAB SEA+India Video Council is an opportunity to contribute to a more representative and future-ready approach, one that accounts for diversity in language, context, and user intent.”
As a council member, Purkayastha will contribute to shaping regional standards across video advertising, measurement and platform governance, with a focus on frameworks that are native to India’s multilingual, mobile-first ecosystem rather than imported from global benchmarks designed elsewhere.
For years, India has been content to play by rules written for other markets. Purkayastha’s induction is a signal that it is done waiting to be consulted and ready to start writing them.
