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Hathway seeks to shave off debt
MUMBAI: India‘s leading MSO Hathway Cable & Datacom says it will be using the Rs 100 crore it has raised from the sale of its equity shares to alternative asset manager Steadview Capital Mauritius Ltd (SCML), LTR Focus Fund, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) SCM to retire some of its debt.
Says Hathway Cable & Datacom MD and CEO Jagdish Kumar G. Pillai: “Most of the money raised will be used to reduce our debt and to make our debt-equity ratio better. With Phase III and IV coming up soon we are open to opportunities, but at this point of time we are well funded.”
One of the stars of the digitisation of cable TV rollout in India, Hathway today informed the BSE that it had preferentially allotted 35,21,000 Rs 10 face value shares to the three entities at a price of Rs 284 each. The company‘s board had got shareholder approval on 26 September for the same during the course of an extra ordinary general meeting.
 | “Most of the money raised will be used to reduce our debt and to make our debt-equity ratio better,” says Hathway Cable & Datacom MD and CEO Jagdish Kumar G. Pillai |
The break-up of the allotment is as follows: Steadview Capital Mauritius Limited (12,00,000 equities), LTR Focus Fund (8,01,000 equities) and MIT SCM (15,20,000 equities) totting up to Rs 99.99 crore.
The company‘s equity capital has increased to 15,19,98,900 shares from 14,84,77,900 prior to the allotment. SCML‘s holding in the company has jumped from 0.0008 per cent to 0.79 per cent; similarly for LTR from 0.0004 per cent to 0.53 per cent and the shareholding of MIT SCM has risen from 0.0008 per cent to one per cent. The investment has a lock in period of one year from the date of receipt of trading approval.
The promoter holding has in tandem fallen from 48.63 per cent to 47.51 per cent of the expanded share capital.
The stock market reacted positively to the news with the share closing at Rs 285.70 following its opening of Rs 270.70 and an intra-day high of Rs 288.
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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.
