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Worldwide Web opens office in India
NEW DELHI: India needs to ensure that all her officially recognised 22 languages can be adequately represented to make Web accessible in Indian languages a reality. In view of this, the role of India becomes prominent especially in the area of internationalisation, Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Sachin Pilot said.
Speaking at a two-day Conference on World-Wide-Web: Technology, Standards and Internationalisation, which coincided with the opening of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) India Office, the Minister said this would go a long way in accelerating the growth of Web in Indian Languages. India is committed to the goal of ‘Internet for All’, and the Government in close co-operation with other stakeholders has taken several steps in this direction, the Minister added.
Emphasizing the need for taking the benefit of Information Communication Technology (ICT) to masses, the Ministers said that engagement with W3C in building all the required standards will facilitate information access on World Wide Web regardless of languages, location, ability, generation, age and income. Besides facilitating wider access of web by common men, it will also equip them to provide locally relevant content on the internet. Such initiative will play a great role in reducing poverty, improving health care, education, spreading good governance and addressing all local challenges in the global context.
Department of Information Technology Secretary R Chandrashekhar, Joint Secretary N Ravishankar, and Swaran Lata who is Country Manager W3C India Office and head of the TDIL programme were also present.
W3C India Office has been set up at DIT under the aegis of Human Centered Computing Division. The Division is implementing the programme ‘Technology Development for Indian Languages’ (TDIL). TDIL Programme is engaging itself actively since 2006 with all the stakeholders in the country to work towards internationalization of W3C Recommendations.
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international Standards Body which develops Standards / Best Practices / recommendations to ensure seamless web access to all. The Vision of W3C is to achieve “Web for Everyone and Web on Everything.” W3C works in tandem with others standards making bodies such as UNICODE, IETF, ICANN and ISO at the international level. W3C has so far published about 183 standards for web technology and working in the future web standards. Recommendations evolved by W3C run across many technical domains.
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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.
