Tag: BJP

ABP News-CSDS surveys castes’ intent: Pro-incumbency sentiment prevails in Gujarat

MUMBAI: It’s going to take no less than a gargantuan effort on the part of the Congress party to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Gujarat Assembly elections due to take place at the end of the year. An opinion poll conducted in the state by Lokniti-CSDS for ABP News, finds the ruling BJP, which has been in power in Gujarat for the last two decades, to be way ahead of the Congress.

BJP seems to gain over last assembly elections held in 2012 under the leadership of then Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Like in other parts of India, Congress in losing out base in Gujarat as well. According to the opinion poll BJP is expected to get close to 150 seats in 182 member assembly.

As things stand right now, the upcoming election of Gujarat appears like a ‘no-contest’ with the BJP leading its arch-rival by over 30 percentage points in terms of people’s voting intention. Close to three in every five (59 per cent) randomly sampled voters said that they would vote for the BJP if state elections were to take place now. Only about one in three (29 per cent) were found to be rooting for the Congress. This means that the BJP has thus far managed to retain the level of support it received in the 2014 Lok Sabha election and the Congress slid.

According to the poll, BJP’s sweep is witnessed all over Gujarat and in all regions of the state. Best performance is in Saurashtra and Kutch regions where BJP is expected to get 65 percent votes against Congress’s 26 percent votes. *Source: Lokniti-CSDS Gujarat Pre-election Tracker Survey 2017, Round 1.

In fact, at the moment, there seems to be no major challenger to Vijay Rupani for the position of the chief minister within or outside the BJP. In response to an open-ended question on chief ministerial preference, 24 percent of the voters said they would like to see Rupani back at the helm whereas most of the voters took no name.

The survey found a sentiment of pro-incumbency to be prevailing in Gujarat. In Kutch and Saurashtra about 54 per cent feel the present BJP government should continue.

Contrary to popular analysis, the recent agitation by some Patel leaders demanding OBC status does not seem to have dented the BJP’s popularity among its voters, the Patels. With nearly three in every four voters belonging to the dominant community, they are still supporting the party. Other than holding on to its core voters, the BJP seems to have also made some serious inroads among the old voting bloc of the Congress – Kshatriyas, Dalits, Tribals and Muslims – politically known as KHAM.

Voting intentions of castes and communities: BJP consolidates base and makes gains.

About 70 percent of the voters said they were satisfied with the performance of the State BJP government during the last five years. Though as the survey suggests, the percentage of satisfied respondents is high although it has dropped from 77 percent to 69 percent somewhat since last survey in May.

According to the survey, the prime minister Narendra Modi’s already high popularity in the state has grown further over the last four years. In the state he ruled for three terms, he is the most liked leader at 82 per cent, followed by with ruling CM Rupani at 73 per cent. While the star of Patidar Andolan, Hardik Patel happens to be the most disliked at 46 per cent.

As per the survey, one in every five Congress voters sympathizes with Vaghela and nearly half refused to take a position on the Vaghela issue. Around 20 per cent Congress voters believe he rightly moved out of the party which disrespected him. Whereas 34 per cent voters of Congress feel that he betrayed the party just before the polls.

According to the survey, most voters were found to be highly supportive of both demonetization (55 percent) and the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST – 38 percent), and also quite satisfied with the way they were implemented.

This analysis is based on the first round of the pre-election tracker survey conducted in Gujarat by Lokniti, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi, for ABP News. The survey was conducted from 9 August through 16 August, 2017 among 4090 voters in 200 locations (polling stations) spread across 50 assembly constituencies (the State has a total of 182 assembly constituencies).

September 1, 2017
Industry & govt need to jointly tackle risk of info & cyber insecurity

NEW DELHI: The National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) safeguarded 300 establishments in India from the recent worldwide cyberattack by the WannaCry ransomware.

Giving this information, NTRO chairman Alok Joshi said, “It is becoming difficult for businesses as well as the government to deal with non-state actors located outside India, who are involved in cyber-attacks. Once any business becomes part of internet then it becomes a part of the global network and cannot operate in isolation. In this regard, Industry and Government need to have a collaborative outlook to address the emerging threat of information and cyber insecurity.”

Delivering his keynote address at the FICCI seminar on New Age Risks 2017, Bharatiya Janata Party national spokesperson for economic issues Gopal Krishna Agarwal said, “Stalled projects, a key reason for a slide in gross fixed capital formation in the past few years, are the biggest challenge which the government is facing. The government has taken adequate measures to revive the investment cycle.” With the intervention of the PMO driven initiative, Pragati’ (Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation), he said, several stalled projects had seen the light of day.

FICCI secretary-general A Didar Singh highlighted that businesses need to strengthen their resilience to ensure continued operation and survival in the face of risks. At the same time, the clear role for collaboration among public and private sector stakeholders becomes evident, for example, to develop better cybercrime prevention methods, to establish cybersecurity norms for both governments and industry, and to align international approaches to enforcement and establish industry norms.

FICCI Committee on Private Security Industry chairperson and former special DG in the Central Industrial Security Force Manjari Jaruhar and Pinkerton MD India, APAC & EMEA – global screening Rohit Karnatak also spoke on the occasion.

Cyber-security features high on the agenda of leaders across all sectors, with business, governments and individuals rapidly taking advantage of faster, cheaper digital technologies to deliver an unprecedented array of social and economic benefits. With the benefits of digitizing and connecting comes a range of new challenges, FICCI Committee on Geospatial Technologies Chairman and Advisor, ESRI India Rajesh Mathur said.

June 24, 2017
Lever, brand BJP had most TV ads in first 8 weeks of 2017

BENGALURU: For the eighth week in row, FMCG major Hindustan Lever Limited (Lever) was the top television advertiser in terms of advertisement insertions per week for weeks 1 to 8 of 2017 (Saturday, 30 December 2016 to Friday, 24 February 2017) as per Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) data.

This paper must be read with a caveat: It deals only with the players present in BARC’s top 10 lists of advertisers and brands. The sums/percentages of other genres/players’ advertisements, other than those indicated in BARC’s top 10 lists of brands and advertisers, have not been considered/mentioned in this paper during the period under consideration and their total numbers/percentages could be more/higher during the period under consideration in this paper.

Analysis of BARC data for Top 10 Advertisers Across Genre: All India (U+R): 4+ Individualsfor weeks 1 to 8 of 2017 shows that of the total number of 25,52,678 television ad insertions (insertions or spots), Lever had as many as 8,36,171 insertions (about a third). FMCG players Reckitt Benckiser (India) Limited (Reckitt) and Baba Ramdev’sPatanjaliAyurved Limited (Patanjali) had the second and third most ad spots respectively.

Please refer to Fig A1 below for details of the other players and genres.

Seventeen advertisers were in the list of top 10 advertisers for weeks 1 to 8 of 2017. Of the seventeen advertisers, 14 were from the FMCG genre, while there was one each was from the Music (Super Cassettes Industries); Online (Amazon Online India Pvt Ltd); and Politics (Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP) genres. Five FMCG players – three of those mentioned above, Cadbury’s India Limited (Cadbury’s) and Procter & Gamble (P&G) were in the list of the biggest television advertisers across all the eight weeks. Of the non-FMCG players, Super Cassettes was in the list of the biggest advertisers for six weeks (including week 8), while Amazon and the BJP were in the biggest advertisers list for 2 weeks each.

Four genres were the biggest advertisers as per the BARC list for top 10 advertisers in terms of insertions. Please refer to Fig A2 below:

Analysis of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) data for Top 10 Brands Across Genre: All India (U+R): 4+ Individuals, shows that forty-two brands occupied the 80 slotsfor top 10 brands that had the highest ad insertions per week spots during weeks 1 to 8 of 2017.

During the first eight weeks of this fiscal, the BJP was the top brand in terms of ad insertions with 63,530 spots across the 4 weeks while it was in the top 10 brand list. Though Lever’s detergent powder brand Surf Excel was in the list of brands with highest number of insertions for 5 weeks, it had only 31,436 ad spots while in the top 10 list. Please refer to Fig B1 below for list of top television advertising brands for weeks 1 to 8 of 2017.

It may be noted that Genre 1 in the figure below is a split of genres to sub-genres, Genre 2 is genres with a broader classification.The Phone genre in Fig B2 below has been further sub-classified by the author as Mobile Phone (phone and data instruments), Mobile Bank or Mobile Wallet (Airtel Payments Bank), Phones Services (Service from phone service providers such as Airtel, Vodafone, Idea,etc) and Phone apps (such as Amazon Video, Jio Digital Life, etc.) in Fig B1 below – Genre 1. Government has been further sub-classified as Government and Association below in Genre 1.

Nineteen FMCG brands were present in the top 10 lists of brands in terms of brand insertions for weeks 1 to 8 of 2017. Please refer to Fig B2 below for the genres (Genre 2) that were present in the top 10 lists during the period,

March 3, 2017
Music, Online and BJP crash FMCG party in weeks 1 to 6 of ’17

BENGALURU:FMCG advertisers had 92.25 percent of the share of television advertisement insertions among the total TV ad insertions by top 10 advertisers across genres list in weeks 1 to 6 of 2017 (Saturday, 31 December 2016 to Friday, 10 February 2017). Of the total of 1,862,229 insertions by top 10 advertisers across in the first 6 weeks of fiscal 2017, FMCG had 1,724,381 TV spots.

This paper must be read with a caveat: It deals only with the players present in BARC’s top 10 list of advertisers/brands. The sums/percentages of other genres/players’ advertisements have not been mentioned in this paper during the period under consideration could be more/higher.

The only advertiser from the Music genre – Super Cassettes Industries (Super Cassettes) had 4.33 percent (80,293 insertions) of the share of TV ads among the top 10 advertisers across genres list in same period. Online player Amazon Online India Pvt Ltd with 44,601 insertions (2.39 percent) was followed by the BJP (Politics genre) with 1.03 percent (19,324 insertions). Please refer to Fig A below:

Analysis ofBroadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) data for Top 10 Advertisers Across Genre: All India (U+R): 4+ Individuals, shows that 16 advertisers were present in the top lists for weeks 1 to 6 of 2017. Five FMCG advertisers were in the top 10 list during all the first 6 weeks of 2017 – Hindustan Lever Limited (Lever), Reckitt Benckiser (India) Ltd (Reckitt), PatanjaliAyurved Ltd (Patanjali), Cadburys India Ltd (Cadbury) and Procter & Gamble (P&G). FMCG majors Brooke Bond Lipton India Ltd (Brooke Bond) was present in the list for five of the first 6 weeks, while its FMCG peers SmithklineBecham (Smithkline) and Ponds India (Ponds), along with Music company Super Cassettes, were present in the list for 4 of the six weeks on 2017. Please refer to Fig B below.

Figure C shows the list of top ten advertisers for each individual week. Across all the six weeks Lever has been at the pole position in the top 10 list. Overall, Lever had 5,92,453 TV insertions (31.70 percent of the total TV insertions by the top 10 advertisers) during the period. During the first five weeks, there was a sort of a tug of war between Reckitt and Patanjali, with the odds in favour of Reckitt, for the second spot in the top 10 advertisers list. In week 6, Reckitt raced far ahead of Patanjalito second place with a massive 62,128 insertions as compared to the latter’s 23,356 insertions. However, Reckitt itself was a fair distance behind numerouno Lever in week 6. Patanjali dropped to the sixth place in week 2017 in list of top 10 TV advertisers.

With elections in five states, the Political genre through the ruling party –BJP found a place for itself in the top 10 list in week 6. As mentioned above, the BJP was ranked eighth with 19,324 insertions in the top 10 list of TV advertisers.

It may be noted that in terms of brands, the BJP lead the top 10 list in terms of TV insertions for weeks 5 and 6 with 11,563 and 19,324 insertions respectively.

February 21, 2017
BJP MP Swamy finds holes in Arnab Goswami’s ‘Republic’

MUMBAI: Arnab Goswami’s up and coming TV news channel, ‘Republic’, is back in the news and limelight. This time, though, criticism is from an unlikely quarter. BJP Member of Parliament Subramaniam Swamy now has questioned the use of the world ‘republic’ for commercial use, citing Indian laws.

In a letter dated 13 January 2017, Swamy wrote to the secretary, ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) : “It has come to my notice that a new TV channel under the name of “Republic” is in the process of being launched… It may be noticed that certain names and emblems are prohibited from being used under the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950 for professional and commercial purposes. As per the schedule accompanying the statute, under Item 6, there is an express prohibition from using the phrase, “Republic”. ”

Indiantelevision could not independently confirm the authenticity of Swamy’s letter and get a comment from ‘Republic’, scheduled for a reported formal launch tomorrow (26 January).

Industry observers felt that, though Swamy’s letter may cause some flutter, but it’s highly unlikely that Goswami’s venture would be torpedoed at this moment and stage of completion.

Swamy, generally regarded as the trouble shooter for the BJP and the nationalist-party led coalition government in New Delhi has caused a spot of bother for Goswami and his team of investors, which include another BJP MP and enterpreneur Rajeev Chandrashekhar.

Swamy’s letter to MIB, posted on his official Twitter page, goes on to suggest that “grant of licence to a news channel to broadcast under the name of ‘Republic’ will be contrary to law and a direct breach of the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950.”

Industry observers felt that though Swamy’s letter may cause some flutter, but it’s highly unlikely that goswami’s venture would be torpedoed at this moment and stage of completion.

Goswami’s venture had applied for uplinking and downlinking of a news channel in late November 2016 and he was appointed ARG Outlier MD on 19 November 2016, a day after he left Times Now.

Chandrasekhar, reportedly, has invested over Rs 30 crore or Rs 300 million in ARG Outlier whereas Goswami’s SARG Media Holding is the main investor. According to latest information with the Registrar of Companies, which have been put out in public domain by various media organisations and not denied by Goswami or his investors, the largest SARG investor (Rs 7.5 crore) is Ranjan Ramdas Pai of Aarin Capital Partners. Mumbai’s Asian Heart Institute owner Ramakanta Panda has invested Rs 5 crore while investor Hemendra Kothari has put in Rs 2.5 crore. Other investors inlcude R Naresh and Shobhana Ramachandhran of TVS Tyres, Renaissance Jewellery and SRF Transnational owner Niranjan Shah, Sameer Manchanda, Sanjeev Manchanda (DEN Networks) and Tapesh Virendra Singhi.

Swamy has appealed to the secretary: “Therefore, your office may look into the use of “Republic” and determine if it is prohibited to issue a license under such a name.”

It remains to be seen whether a slight tweak in the actual name, Republicworld, would save the first most significant feature of Goswami’s new venture — the name.

For info of PTs pic.twitter.com/L2YxhPOeRg

— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) January 25, 2017

January 25, 2017
BJP MP Swamy finds holes in Arnab Goswami’s ‘Republic’

MUMBAI: Arnab Goswami’s up and coming TV news channel, ‘Republic’, is back in the news and limelight. This time, though, criticism is from an unlikely quarter. BJP Member of Parliament Subramaniam Swamy now has questioned the use of the world ‘republic’ for commercial use, citing Indian laws.

In a letter dated 13 January 2017, Swamy wrote to the secretary, ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) : “It has come to my notice that a new TV channel under the name of “Republic” is in the process of being launched… It may be noticed that certain names and emblems are prohibited from being used under the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950 for professional and commercial purposes. As per the schedule accompanying the statute, under Item 6, there is an express prohibition from using the phrase, “Republic”. ”

Indiantelevision could not independently confirm the authenticity of Swamy’s letter and get a comment from ‘Republic’, scheduled for a reported formal launch tomorrow (26 January).

Industry observers felt that, though Swamy’s letter may cause some flutter, but it’s highly unlikely that Goswami’s venture would be torpedoed at this moment and stage of completion.

Swamy, generally regarded as the trouble shooter for the BJP and the nationalist-party led coalition government in New Delhi has caused a spot of bother for Goswami and his team of investors, which include another BJP MP and enterpreneur Rajeev Chandrashekhar.

Swamy’s letter to MIB, posted on his official Twitter page, goes on to suggest that “grant of licence to a news channel to broadcast under the name of ‘Republic’ will be contrary to law and a direct breach of the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950.”

Industry observers felt that though Swamy’s letter may cause some flutter, but it’s highly unlikely that goswami’s venture would be torpedoed at this moment and stage of completion.

Goswami’s venture had applied for uplinking and downlinking of a news channel in late November 2016 and he was appointed ARG Outlier MD on 19 November 2016, a day after he left Times Now.

Chandrasekhar, reportedly, has invested over Rs 30 crore or Rs 300 million in ARG Outlier whereas Goswami’s SARG Media Holding is the main investor. According to latest information with the Registrar of Companies, which have been put out in public domain by various media organisations and not denied by Goswami or his investors, the largest SARG investor (Rs 7.5 crore) is Ranjan Ramdas Pai of Aarin Capital Partners. Mumbai’s Asian Heart Institute owner Ramakanta Panda has invested Rs 5 crore while investor Hemendra Kothari has put in Rs 2.5 crore. Other investors inlcude R Naresh and Shobhana Ramachandhran of TVS Tyres, Renaissance Jewellery and SRF Transnational owner Niranjan Shah, Sameer Manchanda, Sanjeev Manchanda (DEN Networks) and Tapesh Virendra Singhi.

Swamy has appealed to the secretary: “Therefore, your office may look into the use of “Republic” and determine if it is prohibited to issue a license under such a name.”

It remains to be seen whether a slight tweak in the actual name, Republicworld, would save the first most significant feature of Goswami’s new venture — the name.

For info of PTs pic.twitter.com/L2YxhPOeRg

— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) January 25, 2017

January 25, 2017
Essel Group Chairman Dr Subhash Chandra files nomination for Rajya Sabha seat from Haryana

MUMBAI: Media Mogul and the chairman of Essel group Dr. Subhash Chandra Goel has filed nomination for the second Rajya Sabha seat that fell vacant from his home state Haryana, as an independent candidate. Along with him is lawyer R K Anand.

The biennial elections to the upper house are scheduled to be held on June 11 and 31 May was the last date for filing nomination. While Chandra claimed to have garnered support from the ruling BJP and some MLAs cutting across party lines, main opposition Indian National Lok Dal threw its weight behind Anand, who has fought the Lok Sabha election in the past as an INLD candidate. However, Anand at present is not a member of INLD, as per a party leader quoted by Zee News.

May 31, 2016
Essel Group Chairman Dr Subhash Chandra files nomination for Rajya Sabha seat from Haryana

MUMBAI: Media Mogul and the chairman of Essel group Dr. Subhash Chandra Goel has filed nomination for the second Rajya Sabha seat that fell vacant from his home state Haryana, as an independent candidate. Along with him is lawyer R K Anand.

The biennial elections to the upper house are scheduled to be held on June 11 and 31 May was the last date for filing nomination. While Chandra claimed to have garnered support from the ruling BJP and some MLAs cutting across party lines, main opposition Indian National Lok Dal threw its weight behind Anand, who has fought the Lok Sabha election in the past as an INLD candidate. However, Anand at present is not a member of INLD, as per a party leader quoted by Zee News.

May 31, 2016
India TV Mega Conclave “Samvaad” Creates National Headlines

MUMBAI: “Samvaad ” the first Full Day Mega Conclave by India TV instituted to take stock of the Modi Government’s first two years in office, saw an enviable line-up of participants both from the ruling & the opposition benches.

While the response from the equally illustrious audience during the Live Event was thunderous to the passionate debates and the stock taking one on ones, the deliberations at the conclave made big headlines in the national media.

Most part of the show was hosted by India TV Chairman & Editor-in-Chief, Mr. Rajat Sharma himself. While a few discussions were moderated by India TV’s Senior News Anchors, Lyricist-Screenwriter and Ad-Guru Mr. Prasoon Joshi chipped in with his Poetic best while he also made valuable contributions during the politically charged discussions.

In his welcome address, Mr. Rajat Sharma outlined the performance of the ruling regime, their pre-poll promises, people’s expectations etc. while he also highlighted the opposition’s charges ranging from rising intolerance to vendetta politics etc.

A few amongst those who participated in “Samvaad” were, Union Ministers, Arun Jaitley, Smriti Irani, Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan along with BJP President Amit Shah, Yog Guru Swami Ramdev, Congess MP & actor Raj Babbar, Former Union Minister Salman Khurshid, AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi, BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, AAP Leader Kumar Vishwas, MP Maulana Mahmood Madani, BJP MP Manoj Tiwari, JD(U) MP KC Tyagi.

Amongst the battery of well-known dignitaries who were also in attendance as audience included Former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Congress Leaders Motilal Vora, Jagdish Tytler, Janardhan Dwivedi & Ahmed Patel, Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh, Filmmakers Madhur Bhandarkar & Ashoke Pandit, Singer Malini Awasthi to name a few.

India TV Managing Director Ritu Dhawan on the huge success of “India TV Samvaad” said, “We are extremely satisfied not only because we have been able to again raise the bar for our industry peers in terms of top-notch participation & execution that all India TV Events are known for, but also because we have been able to create outstanding content for our viewers, what we always strive for.”

“Look forward to at least a couple more such initiatives soon.” She added.

May 18, 2016
India TV Mega Conclave “Samvaad” Creates National Headlines

MUMBAI: “Samvaad ” the first Full Day Mega Conclave by India TV instituted to take stock of the Modi Government’s first two years in office, saw an enviable line-up of participants both from the ruling & the opposition benches.

While the response from the equally illustrious audience during the Live Event was thunderous to the passionate debates and the stock taking one on ones, the deliberations at the conclave made big headlines in the national media.

Most part of the show was hosted by India TV Chairman & Editor-in-Chief, Mr. Rajat Sharma himself. While a few discussions were moderated by India TV’s Senior News Anchors, Lyricist-Screenwriter and Ad-Guru Mr. Prasoon Joshi chipped in with his Poetic best while he also made valuable contributions during the politically charged discussions.

In his welcome address, Mr. Rajat Sharma outlined the performance of the ruling regime, their pre-poll promises, people’s expectations etc. while he also highlighted the opposition’s charges ranging from rising intolerance to vendetta politics etc.

A few amongst those who participated in “Samvaad” were, Union Ministers, Arun Jaitley, Smriti Irani, Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan along with BJP President Amit Shah, Yog Guru Swami Ramdev, Congess MP & actor Raj Babbar, Former Union Minister Salman Khurshid, AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi, BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, AAP Leader Kumar Vishwas, MP Maulana Mahmood Madani, BJP MP Manoj Tiwari, JD(U) MP KC Tyagi.

Amongst the battery of well-known dignitaries who were also in attendance as audience included Former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Congress Leaders Motilal Vora, Jagdish Tytler, Janardhan Dwivedi & Ahmed Patel, Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh, Filmmakers Madhur Bhandarkar & Ashoke Pandit, Singer Malini Awasthi to name a few.

India TV Managing Director Ritu Dhawan on the huge success of “India TV Samvaad” said, “We are extremely satisfied not only because we have been able to again raise the bar for our industry peers in terms of top-notch participation & execution that all India TV Events are known for, but also because we have been able to create outstanding content for our viewers, what we always strive for.”

“Look forward to at least a couple more such initiatives soon.” She added.

May 18, 2016