Hindi
Animation and film folk to get together at first Animated Feature Forum on 23 August
MUMBAI: Professionals from both the film and animation industry are set to have their first joint interaction at the Animation Xpress Animated Feature Forum (AFF), which has its big ticket premiere on 23 August in Mumbai. The focus of this conference will lie on the future of animation feature films in India.
The AFF is a focused initiative from Indiantelevision Dot Com‘s AnimationXpress that will begin with its first edition on 23 August, but will continue 24/7 online through interactive online forums and blogs as well as on ground events frequently.
According to Animation Xpress co-founder, CEO, and managing editor, Anand Gurnani, “Unlike the Indian cinema industry that can make 10 films in one year and market them well too, the animation industry’s expertise lies only in production. The people here take at least two to three years to release a single film and do not know how to promote and market it. Thus, this conference aims to provide a platform to both these industries wherein they can share not only their domain expertise with each other but also help the Indian animation industry grow further.”
Speaking about AFF, Gurnani said, “Getting film folk and trade to attend the conference has been an experience and our fingers are crossed. Frankly speaking, this is a modest beginning. An assured positive outcome is that there will be a movement towards bringing animation into the mainstream and all the discussions as well as the networking is really going to be useful for our animation industry colleagues.”
House Full
Animation Xpress is releasing a very interesting report which has data and images of more than 50 Indian animated features that are in the works. This report called House Full which will be periodically published will serve as a ready reckoner not only for the animation folks but also the film industry and financers as well.
The Creative Talent Network
A unique Creative Talent Network which is open to all pre-production artists and scriptwriters (free but pre-registration is required) – will be held from 10 am to 1 pm at the Hyatt Regency where the pre pro artists and scripwriters can meet and network to pursue collaboration amongst themselves and with producers who have booked table space.
This will be followed by the conference which begins at 2.30 pm and goes on till late in the evening.
The following is the programme of the event:
10 am to 1.00 pm
Creative & Pre Production Talent Network
1.30 pm
Conference Registration Begins
2.30 pm: Keynote
Mahesh Samat, Managing Director, Walt Disney (India)
3.00 pm: Director‘s Cut
Govind Nihalani
Kunal Kohli
Rohit Vaid
Arnab Chaudhari
Gitanjali Rao
3.50 pm: I to ROI
Siddharth Jain, Irock Entertainment
Jiggy George, Head of Theatrical & L&M, Turner
Abhimanyu Singh, MD, Contiloe Pictures
Ashish Kulkarni, BIG Animation
Krishika Lulla, Eros*
4.40 pm: Tea Break
4.55 pm: Development to Post
Aditya Krishna, VP-Development, UTV Motion Pictures
Aman Kwatra, Production Head, 2nz
Nalin Singh, MD, Indiatales
CB Arun Kumar, Head of VFX & Animation Operations, Pixion
Pankaj Khandpur, Creative Director, Tata Elxsi, VCL
5.45 pm – The 2D pipeline
Deepak Jadhav, Founder, DREAMS
5.55 pm: Marketing & Innovation
Navin Shah, CEO, P9 Integrated
Pranay Atwal, Starcomm
Saurabh Varma, CMO, Reliance Entertainment
Smita Maroo, Shemaroo
To be announced
6.55 pm: Distribution & Release
*Kercy Daruwala, Managing Director, Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sandeep Bhargava, Studio 18
Utpal Acharya, Inox
Devang Sampat, Cinemax
To be announced
8.00 pm: Cocktails & Dinner
The partners and supporters for AFF include:
Gold Partners: DREAMS and Screen, Silver Partners: Indiatales, Autodesk, Contiloe Pictures, BIG Animation, Cornershop. Multiplex Partner: Cinemax, Media Support; Trade Guide, UTVi, Cinema Today, Indiantelevision.com, expressindia.com. The event is also supported by the Indian Motion Pictures Producers Association.
Hindi
India’s telecom subscribers cross 1.32 billion in February 2026
Broadband base swells past 1.06 billion as Jio and Airtel tighten grip on the market.
MUMBAI: India’s telecom sector is ringing in steady growth once again adding millions of new connections every month while the race for broadband supremacy continues to heat up like a fiercely contested cricket match. According to the latest data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on 1 April 2026, the total telephone subscriber base in the country reached 1,321.31 million at the end of February 2026. This marked a net addition of 7.31 million subscribers during the month, translating into a monthly growth rate of 0.56 per cent.
Wireless subscribers (including mobile and Fixed Wireless Access) stood at 1,273.31 million, registering a net addition of 6.97 million and a growth rate of 0.55 per cent. Within this, urban wireless connections grew to 730.75 million (growth 0.70 per cent), while rural wireless subscribers reached 542.56 million (growth 0.35 per cent).
Wireline subscribers, though much smaller in scale, showed slightly faster growth. The total wireline base increased to 47.99 million, with a net addition of 0.34 million and a monthly growth rate of 0.70 per cent. Urban areas continued to dominate wireline connections with a share of 89.41 per cent.
Overall tele-density in India improved to 92.66 per cent. Urban tele-density stood at 150.68 per cent, while rural tele-density edged up to 60.02 per cent.
The broadband subscriber base crossed a significant milestone, reaching 1,059.05 million at the end of February 2026. This reflected a healthy net addition of 6.33 million subscribers and a monthly growth rate of 0.60 per cent from January’s figure of 1,052.72 million.
Segment-wise, mobile wireless access continued to drive the majority of growth with 996.52 million subscribers. Fixed Wireless Access (including 5G FWA) added 16.51 million, while wired broadband stood at 46.02 million.
Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. maintained its commanding lead with 519.64 million broadband subscribers. Bharti Airtel Ltd. followed with 364.14 million, Vodafone Idea Ltd. with 129.36 million, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. with 28.70 million, and Atria Convergence Technologies Ltd. with 2.38 million.
Together, these top five players command a massive 98.60 per cent share of the total broadband market.
In the wireless (mobile) segment, private operators continued to dominate with 92.59 per cent market share, leaving public sector undertakings (BSNL and MTNL) with just 7.41 per cent.
Out of the total 1,257.29 million wireless (mobile) subscribers, 1,177.60 million were active on the peak Visitor Location Register (VLR) date, representing an impressive 93.66 per cent activity rate. Bharti Airtel led in this metric with 99.42 per cent of its subscribers active.
Meanwhile, 14.47 million subscribers submitted requests for Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in February, indicating healthy competition and customer churn across zones.
While urban areas still lead in absolute numbers, rural connectivity is slowly catching up. Rural wireless tele-density stood at 59.46 per cent, compared with the much higher urban figure of 142.32 per cent.
Fixed Wireless Access using 5G technology also showed promising traction, growing to 11.93 million subscribers. Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel are the primary players driving this segment.
The data paints a picture of a maturing yet still rapidly expanding telecom ecosystem. With total telephone subscribers now well past the 1.32 billion mark and broadband users comfortably above 1.06 billion, India continues to solidify its position as one of the world’s largest and most dynamic digital markets.
From bustling city streets to remote villages, more Indians are staying connected than ever before proving that when it comes to telecom, the country’s appetite for growth shows no signs of hanging up anytime soon.
