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MEA ties up with YouTube for a global short film contest
MUMBAI: The Public Diplomacy Division of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) of India and video-sharing website YouTube have launched a short film contest titled “India Is…a visual Journey”, celebrating India and its diversity.
The contest will be open to users across the globe for a period of three months, with the last day of submission on 9 February, 2013. All the entries will be featured on the channel youtube.com/indiais.
The company says it has 33 million users in India.
As part of the initiative, YouTube has partnered with renowned film director and script writer Anurag Kashyap and his directors to produce five short showcase films under the three themes of the contest ‘India is incredible,‘ ‘India is unforgettable,‘ and ‘India is wherever you are.‘
The showcase films will be used to inspire filmmakers, students, and video enthusiasts to create their own five-minute films on any of the three themes. These five films will be produced in association with Viacom 18 Motion Pictures and Anurag Kashyap Films.
All the entries will be judged by a panel of judges from the film industry and will be rated on storytelling, creativity, originality, screenplay, performances and technical execution. The jury will select a total of ten winners with three winners in each category and the first place winners will get EOS Canon Mark II Camera + Lens, along with weekend getaway across exotic locations in India courtesy Taj Holidays. There will also be a special prize for the most voted and watched film. MEA and YouTube will announce and celebrate the winners at a jointly-hosted gala event.
“The aim of this initiative is to get young people to show India from their point of view. ‘India is‘ which we started last year was the first web based campaign initiative by the public Diplomacy division of MEA to connect and interact with people from all over the world and make them think about India. In the first year we received over 250 entries on India from 42 countries. Now we decided to tie up with Google and YouTube. Our partners are Google, Taj, Conde Nast Traveler and Incredible India,” said MEA‘s Public diplomacy Division joint secretary, head Riva Ganguly Das.
Film market Kashyap noted that the Internet has reduced the amount of time that he spends on doing research for a film. “People are growing up watching films online.
My daughter shows me stuff online which I did not know existed. Short films are growing in popularity. Today people have reduced attention spans. Earlier you could make a three hour movie. Today the viewer wants a two hour film. Their patience has reduced. The key to a short film is having the maximum impact within a short period of time,” Kashyap said.
Google Asia Pacific director content partnerships Gautam Anand said that connected devices are creating opportunities for content creators. The first content deal done in India by YouTube was with Eros in 2007 which now boasts of partners like Sony, Star Plus, Zee, Colors, and T Series among others.
“We have over 10,000 Indian movies, over 20,000 hours of Indian television content. We have showcased events like the IPL and Sunburn. About 60 per cent of Indian content is seen abroad. T series has worked with us for 18 months and they have 600,000 subscribers on YouTube. Similarly, Sony which has 475,000 subscribers keeps adding fresh content. They have digitised old shows like Boogie Woogie,” Anand said.
YouTube Director of Product Management Asia Pacific Adam Smith said, “YouTube is the ultimate democratic platform. Every minute 72 hours of video is uploaded from amateurs to musicians. People get a share in ad revenue that their videos generate. Our aim is to make Indian culture more discoverable on YouTube. For instance IIT has a YouTube channel that has got 77 million views.”
He cited example of PSY a South Korean star who became popular globally with his song ‘Gangnam Style‘ courtesy YouTube. It has become the second most watched video on video-sharing platform with many Indian Gangnam Style videos sprouting up.
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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.
