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Tag: Aditya Birla Group

  • Liva partners with FDCI to showcase India’s first Green Heart Fashion Show

    Liva partners with FDCI to showcase India’s first Green Heart Fashion Show

    MUMBAI: Liva, the ingredient consumer brand of the Aditya Birla Group, has announced its partnership with Fashion Design Council of India’s (FDCI) to showcase India’s first Green Heart Fashion Show with a thought leading initiative to promote the concept of sustainability through their collection and products. This initiative by Aditya Birla was the reflection of its commitment towards breaking the myth about eco-friendly materials and also educates the users about the need for utilisation of sustainable materials to avoid environmental hazards in future.

    In order to enhance and promote sustainable development Green Heart Fashion Show showcased collections by well-known designers: Rina Dhaka, Sahil Kochhar, Shalini James, and Samant Chauhan who created fluid garments using Liva eco. The show reconciled sustainability with the fashion industry, ethics and responsibility with beauty, luxury and comfort with style and elegance. The collection shattered the myth of sustainable clothing being boxy, stylishly textured, and fashionable while highly breathable.

    “The mission was to showcase a series of collection  featuring designers championing sustainability and eco-friendly fashion practices. Liva has taken this step of associating with FDCI to support responsible fashion across the value chain,” said Birla Cellulose global chief sales and marketing officer Rajeev Gopal on Liva’s association with FDCI. “With textiles consumptions increasing by the hour and the emergence of fast fashion, the industry at large must realise the need for sustainability to save the future” he further added.

    “FDCI is forging ahead to take fashion on a greener path with a generation of new-age eco-warriors. We believe sustainability and conscious consumption is the need of the hour. Thus, we are extremely proud to begin this new chapter with LIVA as our associate sponsor, as we share a common ideology,” says FDCI president Sunil Sethi.

  • Hotstar and Applause partner for the first slate of Hotstar Specials

    Hotstar and Applause partner for the first slate of Hotstar Specials

    MUMBAI: India's leading OTT, Hotstar recently announced its foray into digital content for a billion screens with Hotstar Specials. For its initial slate of soon to be launched Specials, it has partnered with Applause Entertainment, the content studio from the Aditya Birla Group. The four shows in the initial slate are – Criminal Justice, The Office, Hostages and City Of Dreams. 

    With over 15 crore monthly active users and growing, Hotstar is the country's biggest OTT by a distance. Earlier this year, it announced its next big leap in content with Hotstar Specials helmed by India's leading creative talent. The four shows that will be rolled out as Hotstar Specials mark the coming together of some of India’s most talented entertainment professionals.

    Tigmanshu Dhulia and Vishal Furia’s Criminal Justice, the Indian adaptation of the hit British series, will feature Vikrant Massey, Pankaj Tripathi, Mita Vashisht, Anupriya Goenka and Jackie Shroff in leading roles. Rohan Sippy & Debbie Rao and Vivek Bhushan have helmed the Indian adaptation of the international cult comedy The Office, which features an exciting ensemble cast. City Of Dreams has Nagesh Kukunoor directing Atul Kulkarni, Sachin Pilgaonkar, Eijaz Khan, Priya Bapat and Siddharth Chandekar in a political drama, set in Mumbai. The widely acclaimed international thriller, Hostages is directed by Sudhir Mishra with Ronit Roy, Tisca Chopra and Parvin Dabas playing pivotal parts.

    Hotstar Specials will be available in 7 major Indian languages leveraging the platform's unmatched reach across the country and will also be accessible to Hotstar's global audiences.

    Speaking about the partnership Sanjay Gupta, MD Star India said "With Hotstar Specials we hope to create the biggest Indian stories delivered to a billion screens. To bring this vision alive we are proud to partner with Applause Entertainment on our first set of Specials."

    Added Sameer Nair, CEO, Applause Entertainment, “Hotstar is the leader of the streaming services in India and a perfect partner for us. We hope to entertain their audiences, to contribute in a small way to help achieve their business objectives and to ink a deeper, longer-term creative relationship with them.”

    Over the past year, Applause Entertainment has developed a robust and varied pipeline of shows, and is constantly improving on processes and systems to be able to deliver high quality creative output at scale.

    Hotstar Specials are slated to launch starting March 2019, on the back of VIVO IPL which will stream exclusively on Hotstar.

  • DoT gives conditional green signal to the Vodafone Idea merger

    DoT gives conditional green signal to the Vodafone Idea merger

    MUMBAI: The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has conditionally approved the merger of Vodafone India with Idea Cellular, the largest M&A deal in the sector, which will displace Bharti Airtel from the top spot after over 15 years. 

    The merger is expected to give a breather to both the debt-ridden firms, from cut-throat competition in the market where margins have hit rock bottom with free voice calls.

    “DoT has cleared the Vodafone-Idea merger today. They will have to meet conditions for final approval,” a source told the Press Trust of India, as per a report. The department has asked Idea Cellular to pay Rs 3926 crore in cash for Vodafone spectrum and furnish a bank guarantee of Rs 3342 crore, the source added.

    DoT’s conditions have been fortified after two rounds of legal opinion. The merger will result in a new entity, Vodafone Idea Ltd, which is expected to be better placed to take on competition from Reliance Jio Infocomm and Bharti Airtel. On their own, Idea and Vodafone have struggled to take on Jio and Airtel, widening their losses and losing revenue and subscriber market share. 

    Together, Vodafone Idea Ltd will have 37.5 per cent revenue market share and 39 per cent customer market share, or about 440 million subscribers, making it a stronger entity.

    The Aditya Birla Group has the right to acquire up to a 9.5 per cent additional stake from Vodafone under an agreed mechanism with a view to equalising the shareholdings over time. Birla is proposed to be the non-executive chairman of the merged entity and Balesh Sharma as the new CEO. Idea’s chief financial officer Akshaya Moondra will head the financial operations of the new entity as its CFO. Ambrish Jain, currently the deputy MD at Idea Cellular, is set to become the new chief operating officer.

    Vodafone will own 45.1 stakes in the combined entity, while Kumar Mangalam Birla-led Aditya Birla Group would have 26 per cent and Idea shareholders 28.9 per cent.

    Vodafone Idea Ltd will be capable of building substantial mobile data capacity, utilising the largest broadband spectrum portfolio with 34 blocks of 3G spectrum and 129 blocks 4G carriers across the country.

    Idea and Vodafone are separately paying rental for 6,300 mobile sites which will be synced for the merged entity in two years.

  • LIVA outshines in mall space with unique innovation

    LIVA outshines in mall space with unique innovation

    Mumbai:  Liva, the new age fabric brand from the Aditya Birla Group, is back with its unique campaign, a life size mannequin of the brand ambassador Kangana Ranaut dropped down across malls in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune.

    This season the innovative campaign stands out in 54 malls across 26 cities. LIVA being the first ever brand to have the largest drop down with a size of 20 feet tall which enhanced outreach and gathered immediate attention in the over-crowded mall space. The main idea for the innovation was to create immediate recall in the last leg of the consumer journey.

    The study across malls showed positive consumer response with 71% consumers noticing the drop down and  68% recalled seeing the innovative dropdown, out of which 54% appreciated the campaign. 77% of the consumers surveyed were able to resonate that LIVA was a fluid fabric and 3 out of 5 considered LIVA as a fabric brand.

    Ms. Shardah Uniyal, Head – Branding & Communication, Birla Cellulose expressed, “The response from the innovation done last season was overwhelming, which was one of the many reasons why we re-launched the campaign with more innovative display. Being an ingredient it is imperative for the brand to get noticed and stand out in clutter. This innovation was aimed towards garnering maximum visibility and increasing foot falls for our partner brands in those malls and this campaign has successfully achieved the objective.”

    Mr. Vishnu Telang, CEO – Khushi Advertising, commented “We worked upon the innovative idea given by Liva and further enhanced the look and workability of the innovative dropdown. The most demanding part of the campaign involved creating and putting up suspended 20 feet 3D dropdowns which portrayed the brand ambassador, Kangana Ranaut showcasing the resplendence of the fabric”.

  • Mumbai hosts the 8th edition of TEDxgateway, riveting talks by 25 remarkable speakers

    Mumbai hosts the 8th edition of TEDxgateway, riveting talks by 25 remarkable speakers

    TEDxGateway is back with its 8th edition at the DOME @ NSCI in Mumbai. Taking forward the theme of  ‘Ideas Worth Spreading’, TEDxGateway will bring 25 motivational speakers from  different walks of life will share their inspiring experiences and stories on varied topics ranging from science, inventions to creative art forms.

    This year promises to be bigger and larger with TEDxGateway expecting to draw more than 5000 attendees at Dome @ NSCI. In addition, the main event will also be webcasted across 50 campuses in India, targeting over 150,000+ viewers.public://gateway.jpg

    This year’s TEDxGateway features an eclectic mix of speakers from diverse backgrounds including a microbial explorer, discoverer of fungal species who is currently researching on understanding how ‘wild’ microorganisms can produce improved food and beverages, a 14 year old who invented a bandage with the ability of assessing the need to change it, preventing the chances of further damage saving countless lives, the inventor and builder of a personal flight system and jet suit, creator of YOLO (You Only Look Once) system, the developer of a breakthrough technology to signal the presence of cancer, a child & adolescent psychologist and family therapist, a TB survivor and public health professional, a cybersecurity expert with domain knowledge of smart devices, the developer of wearable sensor to detect a sexual assault, the inventor of communication devices for children with disabilities, and Guinness World Record holders aka the Everest Twins, amongst various others.

    From the Government quarters, Shri Col. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore honored with Padma Shri and an Olympic Silver Medal in double trap shooting, and currently Minister of State, Youth and Sports will also be part of this year’s lineup of speakers.

    The event will also see a grand performance by Ricky Kej, the youngest Indian Grammy Award music composer known for his Indo-American styled environmentally conscious music perform at the event.

    To support the TEDxGateway vision, leading corporate powerhouses are supporting the event this year. Some notable names include Aditya Birla Group, Infosys, JSW, and Rustomjee.

    Speaking on its association with the platform, Percy S. Chowdhry, CEO, Rustomjee, said, “We are delighted to continue our long standing association with the 8th Edition of TEDxGateway. Over the last five years, the TEDxGateway has emerged as one of Asia’s largest event platforms attracting inspirational speakers who are game changers in their respective domains having taken the road less travelled.

    At Rustomjee, we believe passionately that inspiring ideas have the power to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. As one of Mumbai’s largest and most trusted developer, Rustomjee takes pride in making thoughtful spaces available to people and families. Spaces inside and outside homes that help them find who they truly are, help them rediscover lost passions, old friends, spend quality time with their loved ones and much more. We are looking forward to the talks that will emerge for TEXxGateway 2018 – ‘Ideas Worth Spreading’.”

    Commenting on TEDxGateway 2018, Yashraj Akashi, Senior Ambassador and Curator, TEDx Gateway in India said, “With every year, TEDxGateway is growing to become a bigger platform for inspirational people to share their path-breaking ideas and worldly experiences with the Indian audience. Built on the premise of stimulating minds, leading to interactive discussions and constructive conversations, TEDx now has a place in the Indian market where it drives thought-leadership to the learning-oriented, knowledge seeking audience. This year too, we aim to bring inspirational speakers to share their inspirational talks to a high-spirited crowd.”

  • Kumar Mangalam Birla charges into content creation, hires TV vet Sameer Nair

    MUMBAI: Sameer “Sam” Nair has made it a habit to go where many  a man has gone before and failed. The only difference: he has made what he has been charged with a success.

    Now, the former Star TV COO and former Balaji Telefilms group CEO, is headed to the $43 billion Aditya Birla group to revive chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla’s long harboured ambitions to chew away a piece of the fast growing Indian entertainment business through his company Applause Entertainment.

    Earlier, attempts by Birla under Applause were abject financial failures, though the company churned out films such as the Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Black and Dev.

    The reason: Birla did not have a strong platform 10 years ago, and attempts to create for cinema and television were challenging. However, with the upcoming Idea-Vodafone giant (around 400 million subs when the two merge by 2018) under his belt, he won’t be facing that challenge in his fresh attempt to build the entertainment side of his business. Additionally, he has  Sam who has a track record of turning around struggling entertainment companies.  Finally,  global platforms such as Amazon, Netflix and Hotstar will be another window of opportunity for revived entity.

    Thus, Kumar Mangalam has kept aside an initial  investment  war chest of  Rs 2-3 billion this time around.

    Sam  and Applause will be focused on creating premium drama series, in multiple genres and languages (Tamil, Hindi and Telugu) in the shorter format with seasons to feed the new emerging audience which is currently gorging on shows such as House of Cards and Game of Thrones. The idea, according to Sam is to work with content producers in the established studio structure to roll out the first batch of shows rather quickly in the next six months. Around 20-30 series  across romance, drama, crime and thriller genres will be delivered over the next 18 months.

    Dropping data prices on mobile and increased consumption of video while on the move are factors which will fuel the explosion in content in India going forward, points out Sam.  Content, he says,  has to play catch-up with technology.

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  • Star India, Zee & Wizcraft partner Press Club for Redink Awards

    Star India, Zee & Wizcraft partner Press Club for Redink Awards

    MUMBAI: India’s premiere Experiential Marketing and Event Management company, Wizcraft International Entertainment, has partnered with Mumbai Press Club as the official event partner five years in a row for RedInk Awards.

    Star India is the Presenting Partner for Mumbai Press Club RedInk Awards for Excellence in Journalism 2017, while Aditya Birla Group, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Zee Entertainment, Eros International, Indiabulls Housing, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, National Stock Exchange, Nanavati Hospital and JSW Steel are the Award Partners. The Hindu Group and Facebook are the media partners.

    In its 5th year of partnership with Mumbai Press Club’s Redink Awards, Wizcraft yet again creates a memorable event, right delivering the on-ground execution and management of the event.

    The RedInk Awards have been instituted to promote noble practices among journalists and encourage good quality writing, fair play and high ethical standards. Mumbai Press Club’s The RedInk Awards have been created to raise the bar of news and feature writing in India and to encourage fair play and high ethical standards in media and are the only national recognition for good journalism instituted by a professional body.

    The much-awaited Award for Excellence in Indian event in the personal calendar of journalists were presented on Wednesday evening at a glittering awards night here at NCPA with veteran journalist Vinod Dua being conferred with the Lifetime Achievement Award and Raj Kamal Jha the Journalist of the Year Award.

    Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who was the chief guest for the RedInk awards night, said that he does not buy the argument that there is a threat to the fourth estate. “Constructive journalism always has its own value and at the same time we are open to criticism,” he said, narrating his own experience since he took over as the Chief Minister. “Tolerance is in the blood of Indians…India traditionally had been a tolerant society,” he said, adding “Our democracy is very strong and it has survived turbulence in the past. The democratic system evolves and corrects itself.”

    On this occasion, Mumbai Press Club felicitated Fadnavis, who played a yeoman’s role in ensuring the passage of the state Journalist Protection Act.

    The Lifetime Achievement Award has been bestowed on Vinod Dua for his extensive and versatile contribution to journalism in different formats and subjects. He was among the country’s first psephologists, co-anchoring election analysis programs alongside Dr Prannoy Roy on Doordarshan. Dua continues to be an active journalist today as Contributing Editor of The WireHindi.com and anchors a popular news show called ‘Jan Gan Man Ki Baat’ on the digital platform.

    The RedInk Award for the ‘Journalist of the Year’ 2017 given to Raj Kamal Jha, Chief Editor of the Indian Express, for providing exemplary stewardship over the last couple of years to the newspaper; and for providing focus and restoring what it has always been known best for – investigative journalism. Jha also led from the front to make Indian Express part of an international investigative team that cracked the global money laundering scam known as ‘The Panama Papers’.

    “This award belongs to the Indian Express, the entire team,” said Raj Kamal Jha, the Chief Editor of Indian Express, who received the prestigious ‘Journalist of the year’ for the overall coverage of ”The Panama papers’. He said that receiving the award on 7 June is unique for him as on 7 June, 1996, he had joined the Indian Express. “For us what is important is a good story…and sometimes when we see a good piece from a youngster, we feel that we could not have written it that way,” he said expressing hope that good journalism has a bright future.

    Winners of Redink Awards 2017

    POLITICS
    Print – Radhakrishnan Rariyam Kandath, Frontline
    TV – Sreenivasan Jain, NDTV

    SCIENCE & INNOVATION
    Print – Nithyanand Rao & Virat Markandeya, The Wire

    TV – Aamir Rafiq Peerzada, NDTV

    HUMAN RIGHTS
    Print – Ipsita Chakravarty & Rayan Naqash, Scroll.in
    TV – Joint Winners, Abhisar Sharma, ABP News & Maya Mirchandani, NDTV

    BUSINESS
    Print – Sarika Malhotra, Business Today
    TV – Archana Shukla, CNBC TV 18

    BIG PICTURE
    Winner – Ashish Sharma, Open Magazine
    Runner Up – Kunal Pradeep Patil, Hindustan Times

    ENVIRONMENT
    Print
    Joint Winner Tushar Dhara, Sanjay Sawant, Shraddha Ghatge & Neeradh Pandaripande, First Post
    Raj Narain Mishra, Dainik Jagran
    TV – Rajesh Kumar, India News

    SPORTS
    Print – Swaroop Swaminathan, The New Indian Express
    TV – Joint Winner, Moumita Sen, India Today TV & Rajeev Mishra, India News

    HEALTH & WELLNESS
    Print – Priyanka Vora, Scroll.in
    TV – Archana Shukla, CNBC TV 18

    CRIME
    Print – Alia Allana, Fountain Ink
    TV – Atir Khan, India Today TV

    LIFESTYLE & ENTERTAINMENT
    Print – Kathakali Chanda, Forbes India
    TV – Biju Pankaj, Mathrubhumi News

    SPECIAL IMPACT AWARD – Rahul Kulkarni, ABP Maza

    MUMBAI STAR REPORTER – Govind Tupe, Sakal

    JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR – Raj Kamal Jha, Indian Express

    LIFETIME ACHIVEMENT – Vinod Dua

  • Kangana walks ramp for Birla’s new Liva Creme

    MUMBAI: Liva Crème, the new age fabric from the Aditya Birla Group, has been launched by Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla.

    Birla stated, “The ecosystem of our LAPF partners has resulted in also placing India on the global map. We are now a preferred sourcing destination of viscose based products. This is truly in the spirit of the ‘Make in India’ initiative of the prime minister”.

    “Liva’s end-to-end ecosystem of a high quality product, continuous innovation, the LAPF network and aspiration created by communication and brand engagement is a great case study in consumer focus,” added Birla.

    Birla introduced the next innovation – Liva Crème fabric. Embedded in it is the core promise of Liva. Coupled with it are the enhanced features of luxurious fineness and softness. In spawning Liva Crème, he, complimented the LAPF partners who he said have embellished the product with their experience and expertise.

    The event was launched amidst a lot of fanfare and glitterati with Bollywood actress and Liva Crème brand ambassador Kangana Ranaut walking the ramp. Liva Crème fabric – a new variant of Liva fabric – offers consumers the luxurious soft feel which is fluid and natural.

    The fashion show had modeled exclusive Spring Summer ’17 collections of Allen Solly, Van Heusen Shoppers Stop, Biba and Pantaloons made in Liva Crème fabric.

    “Liva Crème fabric has all the attributes of Liva fabric while offering the added benefit of luxurious soft feel. The fabric has found tremendous response from women consumers, as per a research conducted in Mumbai and Delhi. The proposition of luxurious softness has been crafted basis their feedback”, said Pulp & Fibre business director Dilip Gaur.

    “Overall, the designer associations with leading brands to create Liva Crème collection, a stunning campaign with Kangana Ranaut and premium point of sale communications will all work towards positioning Liva Crème as a premium brand in the minds of consumers,” added Birla Cellulose CMO Rajeev Gopal.

  • Sapient Razorfish India wins award for UltraTech Cement

    MUMBAI: Sapient Razorfish has bagged an award for the best construction online video at the prestigious 2017 Internet Advertising Competition Awards for their campaign for UltraTech Cement – #RealRaksha. Presented by The Web Marketing Association, the Awards were announced on 29 March, 2017.

    With the interpretation of ‘Raksha’ or protection becoming increasingly archaic, it was important to bring forth a perspective that was not thought of before. The campaign communicated the concept in a unique way, drawing on UltraTech Cement’s core belief that protection doesn’t just involve strangers on the street, but begins at home. For the campaign, Sapient Razorfish built on the narrative of protection with the theme of Raksha Bandhan as a platform.

    The campaign was successful in driving the message on the hypocrisies associated with the concept of protection, and the need to change at an individual level. In addition to sensitizing people, the campaign became an instant hit online, garnering a total organic reach of 4,594,524 on Facebook, with 499 comments, 16,000 shares, and total views of 38,53,643.

    “This award corroborates our shared commitment to excellence, and the vision that was interpreted successfully,” said Sapient Razorfish India senior creative director Dinesh Swamy. “We always challenge ourselves to be innovative and engaging. The award is a great motivation to keep striving to excel and deliver our best to every project, and every client”, he added.

    “The message of true protection and strength to understand that comes from within has been captured well in this film,” said Aditya Birla Group UltraTech cement marketing services senior VP Kumar Pillay.

  • Idea-Vodafone India merger creates leader with 42% market share

    MUMBAI: Britain’s Vodafone Group’s Indian subsidiary and Aditya Birla Group’s Idea Cellular, after eight months of discussion, have merged to create a new market leader better able to contest a brutal price war. The merger, expected to be completed in 2018, was necessitated due to the launch of Jio Infocomm that shook the Indian wireless telephony market with its low rates.

    Idea Cellular on Monday approved the merger with Vodafone Mobile Services Limited and Vodafone. According to a statement, promoters of Idea and Vodafone will have the right to nominate three directors each.

    The combined company would have almost 400 million customers, 35 per cent customer market share and 42 per cent revenue market share.

    According to reports, Idea Cellular will hold 25% stake in the merged company. Vodafone will hold 45.1 per cent stake, and will transfer 4.9 per cent stake to Idea founders. The merger will require regulatory approval.

    The equity value of the companies was estimated at Rs 40,000 crore each while the combined entity would have debt of around Rs 89,000 crore.

    In a BSE filing, Idea Celluar announced its approval of amalgamation of Vodafone India Ltd (VIL) and its wholly owned subsidiary Vodafone Mobile Services Limited (VMSL) with the company subject to receipt of necessary approvals of shareholders, creditors, SEBI, RBI and other governmental authorities.

    Idea release stated the proposed amalgamation may result in: Creation of the largest Indian telecom operator with widest mobile network in the country and pan India 3G/4G footprint. Sufficient spectrum to complete with major operators in the market while offering innovative priced mobile services to customers and acceleration of expansion of wireless broadband networks.

    “The combination of Vodafone India and Idea will create a new champion of Digital India founded with a long-term commitment and vision to bring world-class 4G networks to villages, towns and cities across India,” said Vodafone Group CEO Vittorio Colao.