YourStory brings you a daily news roundup from India’s startup ecosystem and beyond. Here is the news summary for Wednesday, October 28, 2026.
From the strong debut of Jio Platforms on the National Stock Exchange of India on Wednesday—with shares climbing 21.3% above their issue price of 1,119 rupees—to artificial intelligence capable of generating almost anything we ask for, here are the latest developments across various industries.
When content is endless, what can capture people’s attention?
We live in a world where content is no longer scarce. There is more news, more video, and a growing number of creators—with artificial intelligence now capable of generating almost any content we desire. Yet, this glut of content presents a new challenge: when everyone is creating content, how do you get people to stop scrolling, engage deeply, and keep coming back?
On the sidelines of TechSparks 2026, Avinash Mudaliar—co-founder and CEO of HT Media Labs and creator of Saregama Carvaan—was joined by Deepit Purkayastha, co-founder and CEO of Inshorts, and GSN Aditya, COO of Eloelo Group, for a panel discussion titled “Format as Product: When Content Becomes Infinite.”
The conversation explores how content formats influence the way audiences consume content, what makes a particular format resonate in an increasingly crowded digital landscape, and why the format itself is just as significant as the content it carries.
What is the key differentiator here—is it the format, distribution, personalization, or the relationship with the consumer?
“In reality, these four elements are not in competition; they complement one another and coexist. It is only by combining them in a specific way that you can keep customers coming back. The issue today is not the content itself—which has become virtually infinite—but rather the fact that time is finite,” says Mudaliar.
He explains that when creating Carvaan, he had a clear target audience in mind: people who prefer to avoid the cumbersome process of opening apps, creating playlists, logging in, making payments, and navigating search bars just to listen to music.
Carvaan bundles 5,000 songs into a fully digital, personalized product—yet it doesn’t market itself as a “digital” offering. Instead, it recreates the experience of listening to a traditional radio, limiting song choices to allow listeners to truly immerse themselves in the music. OTT Play, by contrast, focuses primarily on personalization—helping users decide what to watch, where to watch it, and how.
Purkayastha notes that when he launched Inshorts 12 years ago, people were beginning to consume content on their smartphones, yet no app had truly innovated the way users accessed news and information on these devices.
“Today, people come to us because they want a reliable, authentic source of information. They want to stay informed about the world without being bogged down by the noise and provocations found on social media. Our platform is a trusted enough source that users can even turn to it during a ‘digital detox,'” he says.
For Eloelo, the “micro-drama” format enables them to tell more stories, more quickly, and reach a broader audience. “I believe people’s tastes are constantly evolving. While the volume of content is virtually endless, it is the top 5%—the high-quality content—that consistently captures the most attention. The key, therefore, lies in your ability to continuously reshape narratives, tell fresh stories, and leverage cutting-edge data science to deliver personalized recommendations, ensuring that people always see exactly what they want to see,” says Aditya.
The Role of Artificial Intelligence
With the common perception that AI can create anything, what is it that audiences truly value?
Purkayastha notes that while AI platforms are becoming increasingly adept at meeting consumer demand for on-demand information, there remains a strong desire for real-time updates.
“AI cannot ‘imagine’ what is happening at TechSparks right now; someone has to input that information into the system. That is real-time content generation—that is news. Summaries and articles are merely derivatives of that process.”
“When events unfold, the critical question becomes: which sources and distributors can be trusted? Trust becomes the most valuable asset one can accumulate, and I believe that those managing Large Language Models (LLMs) will place a high premium on this.”
Aditya argues that while AI will accelerate content creation, it cannot replace human creativity. “It can be a tremendous aid in storytelling, but I don’t believe it can substitute for human ingenuity,” he says. He points out that despite the massive investments and vast amounts of data utilized by Hollywood and Bollywood, no definitive system exists that can predict whether a story will become a major success.
“Human tastes and expectations are always shifting. That is a challenge that can only be addressed through human creativity.”
He adds that while AI will streamline the storytelling process, the core of creativity and inspiration will remain human-driven.
Trust and Verification
Mudaliar highlights trust and verification as key differentiators within an AI-driven content ecosystem.
“At HT Tech, we are currently experimenting with a compelling concept. HT has established itself as a trusted source for news—both in India and beyond—for many Large Language Models (LLMs), simply because we have a 100-year legacy. We take great pride in our journalism and in publishing verified news. Now, we are building an ecosystem within HT called ‘HT Verify,'” he explains. “For instance, our team members are documenting this event—creating videos and posting them on social media—while also drafting a 3,000-word article structured in a way that aligns with the patterns preferred by AI large language models (LLMs), making it easily citeable by AI. In doing so, you are effectively training the AI to recognize this content as both credible and verified—ready for use. Ultimately, your content gets cited, adopted, and leveraged to meet user needs,” he added.
For Purkayastha, understanding audiences beyond India’s major cities meant identifying a gap in reliable, localized content. Following the surge in mobile internet usage triggered by the arrival of Jio in 2019, Inshorts began exploring consumption patterns in smaller cities and towns, where the team realized that local news often went overlooked.
“We realized that the biggest gap in these markets was a lack of credibility in how content was being generated,” he said.
The company addressed this gap through ‘Public’—a platform featuring verified content creators who share updates about their own towns and cities. Launched in 2019, the platform has since grown to approximately 80 million users.
For Aditya, the economic model of micro-series offers the chance to tell stories for specific audience segments, rather than chasing broad, mass-market appeal. Lower production costs and shorter turnaround times allow creators to experiment with narratives rooted in particular regions and communities.
“I no longer have to craft storylines that cater solely to a mass audience. I can now develop content tailored to specific regions—for example, a particular area in Uttar Pradesh—and still maintain strong viewership. This has enabled us to tap into diverse markets across states like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Kerala,” he noted.
Mudaliar believes that the industry still has a long way to go when it comes to designing products for India’s linguistically diverse audience. He pointed out that although the industry emphasizes creating products for the domestic Indian market (“Bharat”), many of these offerings still draw inspiration from platforms primarily designed for urban consumers.
“98% of people in India consume content or services in local languages. They may not know how to perform a search or write in English—they are still in the process of learning. For them, voice search is the preferred mode of interaction because they cannot type. This is why even services like Google Maps—and even Uber drivers—rely on voice. So, why aren’t we developing voice-first products for India?” he asked.