Dr Ved Pratap Vaidik, a well-known political analyst and freelance columnist, passed away at the age of 78. Dr Vaidik was associated with the Press Trust of India as the founder-editor of its Hindi news agency "Bhasha."

Padma Shri Alok Mehta, former President Editors Guild Of India, expressed his condolences over the demise of the veteran journalist: "It is very sad to hear about the sudden death of Dr Ved Pratap Vaidik. He was a great journalist and a great writer on national and international affairs. Above all, he was a very kind person who upheld human values and deeply believed in our social values as a country.

He has contributed to Hindi Journalism in a big way and was the President of the Bharatiya Bhasha Sammelan. Despite being entrenched in Hindi, he had no bias for the English Language, and he wrote a book too in English. He has given lectures across continents and had a personal relationship with almost all of our prime ministers despite being a socialist at heart. His death is a big loss to journalism."

Veteran journalist Ved Pratap Vaidik has passed away. He was 78.

He was a political analyst and freelance columnist. Vaidik was associated with the Press Trust of India as the founder-editor of its Hindi news agency "Bhasha".

He was earlier Editor (views) at Navbharat Times of the Times Group.

Vaidik was currently Chairman of Bhartiya Bhasha Sammelan and the Council for Indian Foreign Policy.

His columns were published in over 200 newspapers.

While doing research on Afghan Foreign Policy, Vaidik enrolled into Columbia University. He has also studied at School of Oriental and African Studies, London and Institute of the Peoples of Asia, Moscow.

An expert on international affairs, Vaidik had rubbed shoulders with various world political leaders and thinkers.

Dr Praveer Sinha, CEO & MD of The Tata Power Company Limited, India’s largest integrated power company, has joined the exchange4media News Broadcasting Awards (ENBA) jury panel. With a rich experience of nearly 36 years, Dr Sinha has expertise in Power Generation and Distribution sector in India.

Dr Sinha previously served as the CEO & MD of Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (TPDDL), a Public Private Partnership with the Delhi Government. He is also the Co-Chairman of the CII National Committee on Power as also on various Industry bodies.

Dr Sinha is a qualified Electrical Engineer and has done Master’s in Business Law from National Law University, Bangalore and has also completed his PhD. from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He is a visiting Research Associate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston, USA and is also a distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Faculty of Engineering and Architectural Science, Ryerson University, Canada.

ENBA was formulated by the exchange4media Group in 2008 with the objective of recognizing the best in television news, and to reward industry leaders who are responsible for shaping the future of television broadcasting in India. This year, ENBA is in its 15th edition and the jury will be led by Sunil Arora, a senior bureaucrat and former Election Commissioner of India.

In the last editions, the ENBA jury was led by Harivansh Narayan Singh – Deputy Chairman, Rajya Sabha, Dr Kiran Karnik – Former President – Nasscom, Dr Nasim Zaidi - Former Chief Election Commissioner of India, SY Quraishi – Former Chief Election Commissioner of India, N Ram – Chairman, Kasturi & Sons Ltd., Former Editor–in-chief The Hindu and Group Newspapers, Sanjay Gupta – Managing Director – Star India.

Varanium Cloud Ltd. will be acquiring up to 14,53,44,256 equity shares with a face of Rs 10 each from Fastway Transmissions Private Limited. The total purchase consideration will amount to Rs 2,683 crore.

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Devraj Sanyal has been elevated to Chairman and CEO of Universal Music India & South Asia. Prior to this, Sanyal was the MD & CEO of Universal Music India and South Asia, based in Mumbai. He has also taken on the additional role of SVP strategy for The AMEA (Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa).

He has been associated with Universal Music India since 2011. Prior to that, he was Group CEO of Percept Sports & Entertainment, which includes music, events, television & intellectual properties, branded content & entertainment and talent management divisions. Sanyal also co-founded the prominent Asian electronic music festival, Sunburn, with Percept Ltd.

Ashish Shelar, Member of the Legislative Assembly of Maharashtra, joins the ENBA jury panel.

Shelar is currently serving as the Bhartiya Janata Party Mumbai president. An active sports administrator, he has held several prestigious positions like Vice President of the Mumbai Cricket Association and Vice President of the Rajasthan Sports Club.

He has been the Mumbai Secretary for the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

The ENBA jury this year will be led by Sunil Arora, a senior bureaucrat, and former Election Commissioner of India.

In the last editions, the ENBA jury was led by Sh. Harivansh Narayan Singh – Deputy Chairman, Rajya Sabha, Dr. Kiran Karnik – Former President – Nasscom, Dr. Nasim Zaidi - Former Chief Election Commissioner of India, S.Y. Quraishi – Former Chief Election Commissioner of India, N. Ram – Chairman, Kasturi & Sons Ltd., Former Editor–in-chief The Hindu and Group Newspapers, Sanjay Gupta – Managing Director – Star India.

exchange4media formulated enba in 2008 with the objective of recognizing the best in television news, and to reward industry leaders who are responsible for shaping the future of television broadcasting in India.

India boasts of having the world's second-largest mobile phone market with more than a billion users. Yet, internet growth in the country appears to have declined over the past year. 

According to the latest TRAI annual report, the internet subscriber base, as on 31st March 2022, stood at 824.8 million, compared to 825.3 million as on 31 March 2021. 

This means nearly 0.5 million (5 lakh subscribers) have fallen off the internet between 2021-22, a year which was marked by covid-19 pandemic and lockdown resulting in massive job losses. 

The degrowth was recorded in both broadband and narrowband segments. The narrowband decline was gradual throughout FY22. But in the case of broadband, March 22 quarter was particularly bad as the number of internet subscribers fell from 792 million to 788.2 million.

This degrowth is remarkable especially since India is gearing up to welcome 5G. 

The overall telecom subscriber base registered a decrease of 34.27 million subscribers in this period; from 1201.20 million in FY21 to 1166.93 million in FY22, the TRAI report says. 

The wireless subscriber base, people who access the internet via mobile phone, was 1142.09 million at the end of 31 March, 2022 in comparison to 1180.96 million a year ago, registering a decrease of 38.87 million subscribers during the financial year 2021-22.

Smartphones are the main gateway to go online - and this is where growth is flattening. India Smartphone Market Declined by 10% in 2022 to 144 Million Units, according to the International Data Corporation ’s (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. This is the lowest figure since 2019, with a 10% decline YoY (year-over-year). 

The last quarter was particularly bad when shipments declined 27% YoY to 30 million units. Steep rise in the cost of mobile phones due to inflation is being blamed for the dwindling demand. 

“The ASP (average selling price) hit a record US$224, rising 18% YoY in 2022. The entry-level segment (sub-US$150) shrank to 46% of the market, down from 54% a year ago. The dearth of new launches in this critical mass segment was a barrier for new smartphone users, thus limiting the overall market’s growth,” Upasana Joshi, Research Manager, Client Devices, IDC India, said in a statement.