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I&B Ministry rules out allowing digital, analogue to run parallel in 4 metros
NEW DELHI: Information and Broadcasting (I&B) secretary Uday Kumar Varma on Thursday ruled out allowing analogue television signals to be delivered parallel to digital signals for the benefit of TV households which are still to install digital set-top boxes (STBs).
Varma was reacting to a suggestion that since a majority had switched to digital systems, analogue signals could be allowed to continue for some period till everyone switches over to digital.
Talking to indiantelevision.com, Varma said a section of the population always acted only when it was put “face to face with a situation”.
Officially, the compulsory switch over to digital delivery of television channels has happened in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata from today. In Chennai, the Madras High Court has extended the digitisation deadline in the city to 5 November on a petition by local cable operators.
Asked about the non-compliance by multi-system operators in Kolkata, he said the situation was being studied since Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had said the eastern metropolis would not go digital now.
When it was pointed out that some MSOs were switching on analogue under pressure from consumers and local cable operators, he denied this and said teams of the ministry were visiting various headends in the capital and other metros to make sure this did not happen.
He also denied that there were any areas in Delhi with black and white TV sets.
However, Centre for Media Studies Director P N Vasanti said her estimates have shown that around 30 per cent cable TV households in Delhi were still to switch over to digital. A S Kohli of the West Delhi Cable Operators Association put the figure at 50 per cent.
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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.
