ITV

Category: GECs

  • Campaigning on the web? Get a certification, says EC

    Campaigning on the web? Get a certification, says EC

    NEW DELHI: The world has gone digital and so has the Indian political system. With more and more political parties using social media for election campaigns, the election commission (EC) has now directed the chief electoral officers of all states and union territories that details of the social media accounts of the candidates (besides the recognised political parties) who are contesting elections have to be communicated to the commission.

     

    Candidates and political parties will now have to keep the EC posted about their social media accounts and websites used for campaigning, expenditure incurred for maintaining the sites and development of advertisement. Besides, the model code of conduct will also become applicable on the social media.  

     

    According to the commission, a candidate having an account on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or even apps, has to update the commission with their email ids.

     

    The EC has also stated that campaigning on the web will require pre-certification from competent authorities. No political advertisement can be released to any internet-based website, including social media sites without this pre-certification. This certificate is issued by the media certification and monitoring committees at the district and state level.

     

    Not only this, candidates and political parties in the statement submitted to the EC have to include all expenditure incurred on advertisements on social media. This includes: payments made to internet companies and websites for carrying their advertisements, money paid for developing such content for the web, as well as salaries and wages paid to the workers employed to maintain the social media accounts.

     

    The commission has also stated that the model code of conduct will be applicable to the content posted on the internet. However, the commission will consult the Communication and Information Technology Ministry on the content posted by persons other than the candidates and political parties.

  • Pak film depicting Indian militants creates new boxoffice records in Pakistan

    Pak film depicting Indian militants creates new boxoffice records in Pakistan

    NEW DELHI: If Indian films do it, can Pakistani films be far behind?

    A newly-released Pakistani film depicts how Indian villains team with Islamist militants to plot attacks across Pakistan, and as expected the Pak heroes save the day.

    A scene shows militants overrun a Pakistani police academy and kill 100 officers as an Indian spy and her accomplice waltz in a flat in Islamabad to celebrate the success of their mission.

    Waar (“Strike”), Pakistan’s first big-budget movie has been filmed with the support of the army in Pakistan, according to a Reuters report.

    The reports say that even in Pakistan itself, Waar is denounced by some liberals wary of what they see as fiery nationalistic rhetoric and scenes demonising India.

    “Like any other action film, we wanted to show the triumph of good over evil,” said director Bilal Lashari, 31. “And we wanted to do it with a great amount of spectacle and scale.”

    Politics aside, Waar is interesting. Helicopter gunships whizz over mountains and commandos lay siege to militant sanctuaries in Pakistan’s picturesque, lawless tribal regions.

     

    “The army was great in that they gave us a lot of logistical support,” Lashari admitted. “All the scenes with the helicopters and the mountains – we could not have done without the army.”

     

    The movie has proved hugely successful. On a recent viewing in a packed cinema in the capital, attendees leapt to their feet to applaud patriotic scenes.

     

    In one such moment, a retired officer takes on an Indian contractor on the roof of a building while a female Pakistani officer rushes to defuse a chemical bomb planted on the balcony. Many cheered as the officer reduced the Indian man’s face to a pulp. A woman turned to a group of giggling boys and scolded them for “laughing during such a serious movie”.

     

    Presented almost entirely in English, Waar took more than three years to make and officially cost around $2.2 million in a country where the average film is made on less than $25,000.

     

    Its distributors say Waar grossed more than $900,000 during the first week – a record for Pakistani cinema.

     

    Bollywood film Ek Tha Tiger, one of the Hindi film industry’s biggest box-office successes in 2012, but banned in Pakistan, depicted a Pakistani intelligence agent choosing her love for an Indian agent over her country.

     

    This year, a film based on an Indian operation to capture a fictional mafia don given asylum in Pakistan riled Pakistan’s censor board. The villain in D-Day was loosely based on real-life gangster Dawood Ibrahim, who India says is harboured by Pakistan.

  • Maharana Pratap bags six awards at ITA 2013

    Maharana Pratap bags six awards at ITA 2013

    Mumbai: Sony Entertainment Television’s historical show Bharat Ka Veer Putra… Maharana Pratap dominated the 13th Indian Television Academy (ITA) Awards by bagging six awards.

    The show has been hugely appreciated and loved by the audiences since its inception. This was further solidified by its huge victory at the ITA awards. The show won six honours in various award categories. These were for Best Actress in a Negative Role – Aashka Goradia, Best Historical/Mythological Serial- Maharana Pratap, Best Art Direction – Sandesh & Vishwanath, Best Costumes – Nikhat Mariyam Neerushaa, Best Editing – K Rajgopal and Best Title Music/Song Track- Karthik Shah.

    The show narrates the awe-inspiring story of Pratap Singh, one of the first freedom fighters that India ever saw and was launched in May, this year. It is produced by Contiloe Productions.

  • Sab and Toy-Kraft launch Baalveer board game

    Sab and Toy-Kraft launch Baalveer board game

    MUMBAI:  To celebrate the completion of Baalveer, a fantasy drama set against the mystical worlds of fairies and evil Paris, Sab in association with Toy-Kraft have launched a ‘Baalveer and the Evils of Bhayankar Pari’ board game.

     

    Post the success of their first venture SABurbia.com board game, the two plan to bring kids one-step closer to the world of the child superhero. Sharmilee Raj, Lavina Tandon, Dev Joshi, Aditi Sajwan and Shreedhar from Balveer at the launch of Balveer and the evils of Bhayankar Pari board game

     

    On the new initiative, Sab EVP and business head Anooj Kapoor stated, “With Baalveer board game, we provide a unique opportunity for the consumers to engage with the brand and its most popular characters. We are glad to partner with Toy Kraft and I’m sure this experience will create lasting memories for children”.

     

    Adding to it, Toy-Kraft director Dr. Shyam Makhija said, “By releasing the new board game – Baalveer, Toy-Kraft and SAB TV have now forged a stronger link into this licensing foray after the success of the first release – SABurbia.com. This has been a joint action all the way and the complementary synergies of both the companies have been very well exploited. The company is very bullish on the future prospects as more licensed ventures are being explored with SAB besides board games. So far Toy Kraft has released 13 IP based games which is a record of sorts.”

     

    Baalveer Board game was unveiled at ‘Kids India’s’ toy exhibition by Anooj Kapoor, Shyam Makhija, and the entire starcast of the show.
    ‘Baalveer and the Evils of Bhayankar Pari’ priced at Rs 549 will be available in 42 major cities in leading stores. Moreover, on-ground activations will also be carried out in leading malls to generate curiosity and buzz around the product.
     

  • Seven boys and girls will ride for respect on MTV Hero Roadies X1

    Seven boys and girls will ride for respect on MTV Hero Roadies X1

    MUMBAI: MTV Hero Roadies is back with a new ripping format in its ‘X-series’. ‘No vote outs, only performance can get you to win’. This is the mantra for MTV Hero Roadies X1.

     

    It dons a brand new avatar that salutes those who believe the only thing its worth fighting for is respect. And, this season seven boys and seven girls fight it out on equal grounds in an ultimate ride to win respect.

     

    This year, Roadies is auditioning for equal number of boys and girls who would rough it up on even grounds to be the last Roadie standing. This season champions the youth sentiment that being brave and standing against odds is better than being the bully.

     

    The format will reward performance over petty politics. This year, there will be no vote outs, no shortcuts and no alliances. The winner will be decided purely on basis of merit in performance on tasks. This twist in the format reflects the state of mind of young India. Confident, ambitious and street smart.

     

    Starting 17 November, the hunt for the Roadie of the year will kick off through a grueling four-city audition. The epitome of sportsman spirit – Rannvijay, and the mentor of the format- Raghu, will handpick seven boys and seven girls across the four cities. The show will give an equal chance to both the genders to prove their merit and win the title of Roadies. The first stop for the auditions will be Delhi, followed by Chandigarh, Pune and Ahmedabad.

     

    Speaking about the new season, Rannvijay the host of the show and first ever winner of MTV Hero Roadies says: “In the past 10 years, I have seen numerous contestants come to the show with a game plan in mind. Many a times, contestants have gone far on the show on the basis of their mind games and strategy, rather than performance. But now, all that is a thing of the past. For the first time on Roadies, a winner will be selected only on their performance in every task. It definitely is going to be one exciting journey.”

     

    MTV Hero Roadies the returning judge and mentor Raghu Ram says: “The past 10 years has seen Roadies enjoy the top position when it comes to youth based reality shows. With the onset of season XI of Roadies we want to turn the concept around. This time the battle is solely for respect. The eliminations will also be purely performance based while there will be no place for politics. Like they say- let the best man win!”
    MTV India EVP and business head Aditya Swamy explains: “India’s longest running reality show is back with a format that reflects the mood of young India. On one hand, there is the demand for equal rights, on the other the ambition to succeed but only by playing fair. The theme of this season – ‘Ride for Respect’ gives the participants an equal chance. And no vote outs. All that matters is performance.”

  • Shotformats launches digital prepaid wallet Biscoot

    Shotformats launches digital prepaid wallet Biscoot

    MUMBAI: Shotformats, a digital entertainment and VAS companies, has launched the world’s first offline application store and India’s first online digital currency – ‘Biscoot Digital Prepaid Wallet’.

     

    Combined together, the two offerings promise to change the way the digital entertainment industry markets its offerings across the rapidly growing smartphone users’ universe acrossth e country.

     

    On the initiatives, Shortformats MD and CEO Niyati Shah said, “As per our research, 95 per cent of mobile users in  India are prepaid users of which around 30-40 per cent visit mobile recharge shops at least twice a  day for getting recharges. Our distribution chain will comprise of such mobile recharge shops across India for testers. We aim to expand this network to 30,000 retail outlets in one year and sell one million such apps in the next six months. The current ARPUs of a mobile user voice + VAS would be approximately Rs 95 and we are bullish about taking that to Rs 150 in the first year of its launch on Biscoot Offline Store.”

     

    While low cost, big screen and feature-loaded smartphones are now a craze in tier II and tier III cities, the fact remains that majority of the users do not know how to operate such phones beyond basic calls and messages. The shocking surveys reveal that only 15 per cent of the total smartphone users have ever downloaded one or more apps on their mobiles. This situation is tailor-made for offline app stores where a consumer can fully utilise other features of his/her phone without the complexity of data usage and app downloads.

     

     

    For consumers who prefer consuming data online, the apps are available on the Biscoot website and will be offered with the ‘Biscoot Digital Wallet’.

     

    The offline app store will distribute digital content – movies, music, games and apps across more than 10,000 mobile recharge and telephone accessory stores in the next six months. This will prove to be a legal, good quality and reliable source of content for consumers in comparison to pirated and low quality content available from unreliable sources in the country currently.

     

    The company is focusing on creating utility applications across languages especially for Indian users. The range covers devotional, regional calculators, cookery, dress design apps for women and many more.

     

    Explaining the details further, Shah added, “Shotformats will bring high quality content based offline apps to the nearest shop of the consumer. You can load a movie for Rs 30 or a song for a price as low as Rs two. Games and apps can be purchased for Rs 10. The content applications can be transferred on the consumer’s mobile at the outlet and the consumer can use this content as long as he/she requires, without the internet/data connection on their mobiles. This application or the content cannot be copied to or shared with any other device, thus helping create a stream for content owners to monetize their content better, curb piracy and give the entertainment industry its due share of revenues. ‘The Biscoot Digital Wallet’ on the other hand, facilitates online transactions. The ‘Biscoot Digital Wallet’ will allow the consumers to create a digital wallet called ‘Biscoot Batua’ with their personal login account. These consumers can simply get Biscoot credits in exchange of rupees from retailers and use it for online transactions.”

     

    Disclosing the distribution plans, Shah said that Shotformats will focus on the Indian market and market Indian content for the next few years. “In India, we love our movies and we adore our music. The appetite for Indian content is so huge that we do not need to look elsewhere.”

     

    Offline application stores are being launched in a staggered manner and the initial phase will cover Mumbai, Pune, Aurangabad, Nagpur, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Rajkot, Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Surat, Chandigarh, Bhopal, Indore, Rewa, Jabalpur, Lucknow, Kanpur, Allahabad, Guwahati and Siliguri. The content will be available in eight languages – Hindi (Bollywood), Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Bhojpuri, Marathi and Assamese.

     

    This digital wallet is the ultimate solution for those who shy away from using their credit/debit cards for online transactions. This currency will be available at retail mobile recharge and telephone accessory shops at the currency unit of Re 1. The Biscoot currency will be available as scratch cards at denominations of Rs 1000, Rs 500, Rs 100 and Rs 50.

  • LinkedIn unveils trio of mobile apps

    LinkedIn unveils trio of mobile apps

    MUMBAI: LinkedIn on Wednesday showed three mobile apps that aim to boost productivity of mobile professionals and capture on-the-go audiences.

    The professional network unveiled a new app called LinkedIn Intro along with a redesigned Pulse and LinkedIn iPad app. LinkedIn Intro is a mobile email product that allows users to have people’s LinkedIn account connected with popular email accounts so that they can immediately identify people.

    LinkedIn Intro works on iPhones and is available for download at Intro.LinkedIn.com and will hit Apple’s App store in coming months.

    “This adoption of smartphones over the last decade or so has really changed the way we think about products,” said LinkedIn senior VP of products and user experience Deep Nishar.

    LinkedIn senior VP of products and user experience Deep Nishar

    LinkedIn is experiencing explosive growth in users coming to its services from mobile devices, much like Facebook, Google and Twitter. About 38 per cent of its members visit from mobile

    For recruiting professionals, often out at job fairs and networking events, mobile apps that replace desktop functions are important tools.

    LinkedIn acquired Pulse in April for $ 90 million in stock and cash. Pulse’s popular news reader, started by two students while at Stanford University, had quickly become a sensation for its slick interface on touch screens ideal for flicking through news feeds. Under its relaunch, LinkedIn meshed many of its desktop features into Pulse, such as integration of its Influencer blogs.

    LinkedIn’s redesigned Pulse app will be available for download on iOS and Android for both smartphones and tablets in the coming week.

    Last week, LinkedIn unveiled ‘Recruiter Mobile’ and ‘Mobile Work With Us’, two popular desktop services adapted into apps for on-the-go use.

     

    ‘Recruiter Mobile’ will enable recruiting professionals to search for candidates, allowing them to send InMails, call or text. Also, recruiters can take notes on candidates and forward prospects to hiring managers.

    Recruiter is LinkedIn’s primary subscription service and is responsible for the largest portion of the company’s revenue. The product is used by more than 20,000 companies.

    LinkedIn’s new ‘Mobile Work With Us’ gives employers the ability to show job openings on the profiles of employees at their company. These job advertisements will appear at the top of member profiles.

    LinkedIn acquired CardMunch in January 2011 for an undisclosed sum. CardMunch’s mobile app allows people to take photos of business cards and convert them into their mobile contacts.

  • Prisma Global felicitated with Mobbys Awards 2013

    Prisma Global felicitated with Mobbys Awards 2013

    NEW DELHI: Prisma Global, a leading information technology solutions company, has bagged the esteemed The Mobbys Awards 2013.

     

    In the ceremony held on 22 October in Mumbai, the mobile application ‘Snap2life’ by Prisma Global was acknowledged as a distinctive mobile application in the Augmented Realty sector and was accepted as the most innovative and state-of-the-art technology. The company was recognised for the ‘Best use of mobile media in advertisement’ in the category of Marketing and Advertising.

     

    Chairman and Group CEO Shreeram Iyer said, “It is our constant endeavor to highlight the new wave in the advertising and marketing space through our 4th generation technology of ‘Image Recognition and Augmented Reality’. We envision transforming the way companies reach out to their target audiences. Snap2life was the upshot of this endeavor and we are absolutely thrilled by the recognition and appreciation we have received.”

     

    The Mobbys Awards 2013 is an awards program recognising the best of the mobile industry. The show was hosted by WHO, CMO Asia and CMO council. The Mobbys Awards covered all sections of the mobile industry from device hardware to content development and innovations. The six different genres for awards were Device Innovation in the mobile industry, Best applications/content-Development Platforms, Marketing & Advertising, Individual and Best Mobile Application/content. There were three-four awards in each genre for different categories.

     

    The Mobbys Awards celebrates outstanding achievements across all aspects of the mobile landscape to recognise and honour the creativity and insights of both individuals and businesses at the cutting edge of mobile marketing. The Award represent all walks of the digital and mobile ecosystem from start-ups, studios, content providers, entertainment, entities, sports, apps and handsets, brands and more.

  • Who wants to be an entrepreneur?

    Who wants to be an entrepreneur?

    MUMBAI: If you think you’ve got an idea worth a million bucks, here’s something that might just help you make it a reality.

    ‘Built from Scratch’, founder and CEO Magnon/TBWA Vineet Bajpai’s second book, serves as a guide for aspiring entrepreneurs – handholding them through various steps and tactics of building a business ground-up.

    There’s a message in the title itself for budding businessmen/women: Pick up basic tools and start building a company with whatever little you have. At the end of the day, every organisation is created out of one dominant ingredient – the human will.

    Asked what made him pen the tome, Bajpai says: “The thought of writing the book came to my mind many years ago when I used to teach at MBA institutions as guest faculty. During my interactions with management students, I discovered that almost every one of them secretly nurtured the dream of becoming an entrepreneur and building his/her company. However, most were clueless on how to actually start their entrepreneurial journey.”

    “More importantly, there existed a deeply entrenched belief that a business can be started only with large financial investment. Being a first-generation entrepreneur myself, who started with a few thousand rupees in my pocket, I felt compelled to offer a helping hand to perhaps millions of such people who dream of building businesses and companies, but have no practical guidance for the same. I also noticed that there were no books written by Indian authors that offered detailed and street-smart advice on enterprise building. It was then that I decided to write my second book.”

    With a million self-help books on the market already, why would readers pick up one more such book? “The most important differentiator is that I am preaching only what I have practiced,” says Bajpai, recalling how he started Magnon/TBWA and Magnon E-Graphics with the rupee equivalent of just $300.

    The most important differentiator is that I am preaching only what I have practiced says Vineet Bajpai

    “Today, these are multi-million dollar global companies. So very few authors would have the real and ‘battle-field’ experience that I carry; secondly, the book is as much a motivational read as it is a management work. It speaks to the reader about his/her fears and dreams, his/her mental-barriers and his/her ambitions. The combination of a self-help approach with hard-core management content makes the book quite an intellectual asset for any aspiring entrepreneur,” he shoots.

    The book busts quite a few myths associated with career management as seen through the eyes of the Indian middle class.

    “It tells the reader that he can do it too! And then it educates the reader about various aspects of starting up businesses – the idea generation, market research, environment scanning, revenue model, finance raising options, go-to-market strategies, the common pitfalls, first year of survival and a lot more. It is quite a hard-hitting and real handbook for aspiring entrepreneurs,” defends Bajpai.

    The book is inclusive of everyone who nurtures business ambitions, even say the aunty next door who cooks great south Indian food and could open a catering venture. “Entrepreneurship is not a restricted zone, and anyone and everyone can dream of being a successful entrepreneur. So the book aims to reach out to the student community, to working professionals, corporate executives and almost anyone who is planning to start his or her own venture,” says Bajpai.

    What lies at the heart of the book is Bajpai’s own experience of founding and building his companies. “Readers will see that while I lead global companies today, I started in a tiny shed with rented computers, a tin roof and at times, even swept the floor of my first office! They will discover how a company where buying even a water cooler was a major financial decision at one time, transformed into one of Asia’s largest digital agencies. It is a fantastic yet true story that the readers will love,” says he.

    Moral of the story is if you don’t hail from a business family, aren’t a Harvard dropout and don’t have a globe-changing innovation, you can still dream of making it large, with a little help from Bajpai’s book, published by Jaico and available for just Rs 299.

  • North East Live in talks with DTH players

    North East Live in talks with DTH players

    Kolkata: ‘North East Live’, the first 24×7 satellite news channel launched in Arunachal Pradesh at the beginning of this month, is in talks with DTH (direct-to-home) players like Tata Sky, Dish TV, Airtel, etc to get itself integrated in the list of channels offered to subscribers by them. For this, the channel has earmarked an annual budget of Rs 12 crore-Rs 13 crore.

    In Arunachal Pradesh, the DTH players charge around Rs 4.5 crore every year as carriage fees.

    The news channel also plans to start a beauty pageant very soon. It has tied up with Femina Miss India in order to make participating in the contest easier for the girls from north east India. The girls can directly get in touch with the channel.

    ‘North East Live’ is a sister channel of Guwahati-based Pride East Entertainment Private Limited running three other channels-namely ‘Newslive’, a news channel; while ‘Rang’ and ‘Ramdhenu’ are general entertainment channels (GEC) channels.

    “This is the fourth venture of Pride East Entertainment. The news would be telecast in Hindi, English, Assamese and Bengali. We would focus on the political beat more as north eastern states are likely to see many developments,” said Caushiq Bezboruah, chief executive officer, Pride East Entertainments.

    Pride East Entertainments has around 350 employs working for them. For the ‘North East Live’, there is a team of 50 people. “We have set up a studio at Arunachal Pradesh and for the Guwahati reporting, the infrastructure and manpower of ‘Newslive’ are used,” said Bezboruah.

    Talking about their plan to get them included on the DTH platform, Bezboruah says that the DTH players have strong foothold as compared to local cable operators in the state. “The players would take a view of the percentage of our acceptance among viewers. They will do a survey probably,” he said.

    While talking about the tie up with Femina Miss India, he said that many aspiring women miss the opportunity because of the difficulty of travelling to Kolkata. “But this would make it easier for them,” he said.

    He even thinks that with this new works out, the people across the country and abroad will be able to know more about north east India via their channels. “The information about north east India missed by the mainstream channels will reach the rest of the country and the world from now on through this satellite channel,” he said.

    On being asked about the media scenario in the north eastern region of the country, Bezboruah said it is very similar to the other parts of the country and revenue generation is challenging.