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Five rounds completed on first day of 3G auction
NEW DELHI: The auction for the third generation (3G) spectrum commenced today with nine telecom service providers taking part, and five rounds were completed by the evening.
The provisional winning price for Delhi at the end of round five was Rs 3.73 billion and a sum of Rs 37.3 million was announced as the price increment for round six.
In comparison, the provisional winning price for Mumbai, the rest of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu was Rs 3.63 billion each. A sum of Rs 36.2 million was announced as the price increment for round six in each of these territories.
For Kolkata, the provisional winning price was Rs 1.36 billion and the price increment for round six was Rs 13.5 million. For the rest of West Bengal, the figure was Rs 1.21 billion with no price increment for round six.
The provisional winning price for 12 other states varied between Rs 1.26 billion and Rs 300 million. Uttar Pradesh is the only state where separate bidding is being held for west and east part.
Four private players would be allotted spectrum in five states- Punjab, Bihar, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir- while the remaining telecom circles will have three private players each.
The telecom operators are Aircel, Bharti Airtel, Etisalat DB Telecom Pvt Ltd, Idea Cellular, Reliance, S Tel, Tata Teleservices, Videocon Telecommunications and Vodafone Essar.
Meanwhile, for the broadband and wireless access (BWA) auction, which will be held after the conclusion of 3G auctioning, 11 telecom companies- Aircel Ltd, Augere (Mauritius), Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Infotel Broadband Services, Qualcomm, Reliance WiMax, Spice Internet Service Provider, Tata Communications Internet Services, Tikona Digital Networks and Vodafone Essar – have qualified, Department of Telecom (DoT) said.
The government had set Rs 35 billion as the base price for pan-India 3G spectrum and Rs 17.5 billion for a BWA services. The government is expected to earn about Rs 200 billion from the process.
3G services, which would allow faster connectivity and enable customers to enjoy Internet TV, video-on-demand, audio-video calls and high-speed data exchange, would start from 1 September.
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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.
