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Hinduja TMT restarts trading, closes at Rs 599
MUMBAI: Hinduja TMT Ltd, which houses the cable and media businesses, has started trading again after spinning off its ITES-BPO functions into a separate company. HTMT‘s shares closed at Rs 599.35, up 2.83 per cent from its previous trading of Rs 582.85 on 28 March. Wire & Wireless India Ltd (WWIL), the other cable company to be listed, ended today at Rs 80.45. The scrip (face value of Re 1) was marginally down by 0.62 per cent from its previous close. HTMT has 63 per cent stake in IndusInd Media & Communications Ltd (IMCL), which is engaged in cable TV distribution, cable internet, cable movie and home shopping channels, film financing and content agregation. |
HTMT also holds cash of Rs 5.11 billion and owns a 47-acre property in Bangalore. It has a paid-up capital of Rs 205.3 million and networth of about Rs 5.87 billion as on 31 December 2006. The ITES-BPO business, which has been demerged into HTMT Global Solutions Ltd, is expected to list next month, subject to completion of regulatory approvals. “Post this demerger, there would be two companies listed on the stock exchanges (Hinduja TMT Ltd and HTMT Global Solutions Ltd), HTMT said in a release. Earlier, HTMT unified its media subsidiaries under one umbrella. As part of the restructuring, In2Cable (subsidiary which is into broadband business) and InNetwork Entertainment (content) were merged into IndusInd Media & Communications Ltd (cable TV distribution under Incablenet brand). |
Cable operations were started in 1995 and the facilities were upgraded to provide digital cable TV by installing over 6000 km of fibre optic cables. IMCL runs a Bollywood movie channel ‘CVO‘ which has a Hindi movie library of over 1000 movies. CVO reaches 50 cities with an eight million household viewership. Shop24Seven, the shopping channel, is telecast on the IMCL network and is available on time slots through other satellite channels. IMCL leases its spare capacity in the fibre optics network to major telecom companies such as Hutch, Tata and Railtel. IMCL is already providing twin play (Video content & Internet data) and is readying to provide triple play through its network, the company said in a release. As of March 2007, IMCL had posted total revenues of approximately Rs 2.7 billion (provisional and unaudited) and a net profit of approximately Rs 990 million (provisional) which includes Rs 860 million profit from the Hutch stake sale. IMCL continues to be a debt free company, the release added. |
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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.
