Applications
Nokia launches mobile Antakshari with RockeTalk & Maxus India
MUMBAI: Mobile handset manufacturer Nokia has partnered with RockeTalk, a mobile social networking application, and Maxus India to launch an audio game show – Nokia mobile Antakshari.
Nokia Antakshari show comes from the near life-like Antakshari experience where people can sing and answer musical questions from all over the country. Additionally, the mobile users would be playing for daily prizes, for a chance to be one of the shortlisted players to play and perform in the Gala round to an audience of more than 8.6 million users, the company said.
Nokia India director- marketing Viral Oza said, “Nokia has been synonymous with digital music in this country. We have pioneered many initiatives in this space starting with pre-installed music, launch of music albums on mobile phones, Nokia Music Unlimited and now Mix Radio for our Lumia smartphones. Mobile Antakshari is an interesting concept and provided us with the perfect fit to connect consumers with Nokia Asha smart phones. Nokia Mobile Antakshari will enable millions of music lovers across the country to engage with their favorite game.”
RockeTalk chief marketing officer Sameer Agarwal added, “These days when most social platforms are offering nothing significantly more than banners, likes and posts, RockeTalk differentiates itself by creating customised engagement solutions, branded social programming and multimedia activities. The Nokia Mobile Antakshari is just one such example – albeit something we believe will be a trendsetter. We are proving that for brands, now is the time to measure social engagement with new matrices.”
The application is supported on most phones that are GPRS enabled – both Nokia feature phones and Nokia smart phones included.
Maxus India national director – digital Unny Radhakrishnan said, “At a time when digital marketing is growing more aggressive on ‘social‘ presence of brands, this signals an interesting shift towards ‘social media engagement‘, where Maxus India, Nokia and RockeTalk are breaking new grounds with Nokia Mobile Antakshari.”
The Nokia-Maxus initiative is in line with the new drifts in the digital space. The RockeTalk app not only hosts the show but allows multiple promotional tools from its advertising repertoire to draw in the user, ranging from audio-enabled banners to multimedia broadcasts and free program subscriptions.
Applications
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.
