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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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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.
