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DVD pricing to be affordable: CII seminar
MUMBAI: DVDs have an important role to play in the wake of competition leading to a drop in pricing, speakers at a seminar said here today. “Pricing would make DVDS more affordable,” CII deputy chairman and Wartsila India MD Banmali Agrawala said in his welcome address. |
The seminar on `DVDs: The Road Ahead‘, organised by CII and DVD+RW Alliance, discussed on global perspectives on DVD media and the future for DVD + R/RW (an advanced recordable / rewritable DVD format). DVD+RW Alliance Board Chair / Philips IP&S Frank Simonis extolled the versatility of the medium and said, “Storage capacity has increased because of the innovation of a ‘dual layer’, while the ability to re-write data on the DVD+RW repetitively make it versatile.” |
He also explained how the industry had gone about the task of spreading information about the new latest format using different resources, so that end users could understand its advantage. He pointed out the importance of understanding how the recordable / rewriteable DVD format can help business as a reliable and robust storage media. CII national committee chairman on electronics, hardware and peripherals and chairman of Moser Baer Deepak Puri pressed on the urgent need to demystify technology for the end-user and pointed out that DVD offers lowest cost per MB of storage. Mahesh Rangra of Moser Baer also made a presentation on the Indian market scenario, saying, “The overall optical disk market is 1006 million units. CD-ROMs are a predominant 89 per cent, DVD-ROMs 10 per cent, while CD R/W comprises one per cent of the Indian market.” The seminar was also addressed by industry leaders in the optical media, drawn from different parts of the world, including Marianne Cali of Hewlett-Packard, Masashi Mizuta of Sony, Dr. Paul Weijenbergh DCCG Chair / Philips IP&S, Kazuo Kobayashi DCCG Deputy Chair / Ricoh, Hideharu Takeshima MKM, Vivek Chaturvedi Moser Baer India VP international marketing, and Hisao Tatsumi DVD +RW Alliance Board / Ricoh. |
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With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
