ITV

Tag: C&A

  • Pakka teams up with brands & innovators to protect forests

    Pakka teams up with brands & innovators to protect forests

    Mumbai: In celebration of Earth Day, Pakka – pioneers of compostable packaging manufacturers in India, along with other 14 companies have committed to end sourcing from ancient and endangered forests in their textile and packaging supply chains, demonstrating their dedication to people and the planet. This commitment is part of the CanopyStyle and Pack4Good initiatives from solutions-driven environmental not-for-profit Canopy. Other forward-thinking fashion and lifestyle brands in today’s announcement include John Lewis & Partners, Kering, Groupe Beaumanoir, Zadig & Voltaire, C&A, PANGAIA, City Threads, 2WO+1NE=2, Zeus + Dione, and House of Hackney.

    Every year, 3.4 billion trees are cut down to make man-made cellulosic fibre (MMCF)-based textiles, like viscose and rayon, and for paper packaging. That is equivalent to two soccer pitches worth of forests being cut down every second. Beyond their commitment to preserving the world’s most climate and biodiversity-critical forests, these companies will also invest in low-carbon, circular fibre alternatives like Next Gen materials, and advocate for forest conservation and restoration globally.

    As next gen innovators — Pakka and other organisations like BlockTexx, Genera, Nordic Bioproducts, and Ponda offer solutions technologies that range from packaging solutions made from miscanthus pulp, clothing waste, wheat straw, or hemp residues to high-quality pulps for textiles and wetland-regenerating fibres. These innovators offer creative and low-impact alternatives to forest fibre. As new governmental regulations around deforestation, climate, and eco-design come into play, trailblazers such as these will provide the circular, climate-friendly materials that global brands need.

    Founded in Ayodhya in 1981 as Yash Papers Ltd, a leading manufacturer of low-grammage kraft paper, the company strategically forayed into sustainable packaging. It was rebranded as Yash Pakka in 2019 to align with the mission of creating and promoting compostable packaging solutions, rebranding once again in 2023 to emerge as Pakka Ltd. The company has established a global footprint, with its products accessible in over 40 countries and offices present in India, North America and it plans to establish a facility in Guatemala.

  • Pankaj Vasani wins ICAI’s “chief financial officer of the year” award 2018

    Pankaj Vasani wins ICAI’s “chief financial officer of the year” award 2018

    MUMBAI: Publicis Groupe’s Executive President & CFO, South Asia, Pankaj Vasani, has been awarded “CA CFO of the Year in the Media & Entertainment Sector” by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) at the 12th ICAI’s Leaders & Business Excellence Awards held in Mumbai on 19 January.

    Pankaj received his award from Shri. Vijay Goel, Hon’ble Union Minister of State for parliamentary Affairs, CA. Naveen Gupta – President ICAI, CA, Dhiraj K. Khandelwal – Chairman Committee for Members in Industry & Business, and other key officer bearers of ICAI.

    The awards instituted by ICAI acknowledges the Chartered Accountants (CAs) in the industry who have demonstrated excellence in the way they conduct their profession, are exemplary role models in the industry, have created value to their company's stakeholders on a sustainable basis and are outstanding contributors to the society.

    On receiving the award, Pankaj said, “I'm truly and honestly thrilled to be here today, and sincerely grateful to the entire jury for the unique distinction. I might have done well at my job, but this recognition accorded by the Institute, which I greatly appreciate and accept with all humility and deep gratitude, comes in consequence of a lot of other people's work. I, therefore, accept this award on behalf of my family and friends for always being there and encouraging me, my mentors for believing in me and all my colleagues who I’ve worked in the past and work with at the Publicis Groupe, who made this moment, happen. This award is a compliment, an inspiration and cognisance that I'm on my journey to become a better professional, and a person of greater social significance.”

    The prestigious ICAI awards are given in various categories (i) CA Business Achiever (Chairman/CEO) (ii) CA Chief Financial Officer and (iii) CA Professional Achiever. The top five nominations in each category are short listed by the Nomination Committee, which then sends it to the Jury for final selection. The Jury consisting of eminent personalities from the Indian Industry, leading businessmen, representative of national trade bodies, regulators, academicians, heads of universities, past presidents of ICAI and other well-known personalities, then decides on the final winner of the awards. This year’s distinguished Jury was chaired by Shri Keki Mistry, Vice Chairman and CEO, HDFC. 

    The winners were chosen from various industries such as manufacturing sector, financial sector, services sector, information technology, media and entertainment sector, telecom sector, healthcare sector, public sector, infrastructure and construction.

  • Tata Sky partners Irdeto to secure content

    Tata Sky partners Irdeto to secure content

    MUMBAI: Tata Sky has signed a deal with Irdeto to ensure the safety of the DTH operator’s content relayed to any device across its satellite and over-the-top (OTT) platforms. The company will be implementing Irdeto’s Cloaked CA and middleware technologies for better customer experience.

    Tata Sky MD and CEO Harit Nagpal said, “At Tata Sky, we are committed to providing our customers with the most innovative video services across satellite and online platforms in India. To provide consumers with greater choice and convenience, we need a security partner that gives us the freedom to innovate without fear. In Irdeto, we are working with a strong security partner with a forward-looking approach and future-proof solutions. This enables us to continue innovating our solutions and services while giving us the peace of mind that our content is secure.”

    Irdeto will manage the planning and deployment of the project for Tata Sky to seamlessly integrate security technology with third-party solutions. Cloaked CA is a conditional access system for broadcast and IPTV operators. It reduces the need for a smart card and reduces cost and complexity.

    “We are honoured to be selected by Tata Sky as their long-term security partner for Conditional Access and Middleware,” said Irdeto CEO Doug Lowther.“This deal further reinforces Irdeto’s commitment to the dynamic and fast-growing media market in India and we are excited to continue working with Tata Sky to help them meet their business goals.”

    Also Read :

    Tata Sky and Irdeto tie up, OTT service launched on Android devices

    Tata Sky offers Reliance DTH consumers migration deal, Dish TV too in play

    Tata Sky deploys DataMiner to improve customer experience

  • ICC suspends USA Cricket Association membership

    ICC suspends USA Cricket Association membership

    MUMBAI: International Cricket Council (ICC) Board, exercising its power under Article 2.7 of the ICC’s Articles of Association, has unanimously decided to suspend the membership of the USA Cricket Association (USACA) with immediate effect.

     

    The decision to suspend USACA was made after careful consideration of the findings set out in a recently constituted review group report to the ICC Board on the Status and Activities of USACA – a comprehensive document based on input from over 100 stakeholders, including USACA – and followed a meeting with USACA representatives during the ICC Annual Conference week.

     

    The Review Group, in its comprehensive report, has expressed “significant concerns about the governance, finance, reputation and cricketing activities of USACA.”

     

    The suspension means that USACA will not be entitled to receive any ICC funding nor will it be entitled to determine whether cricket matches and events staged in the US should have the status of approved or disapproved cricket. Instead, the ICC will make that determination, in accordance with Section 32.2 of the ICC Operating Manual.

     

    However, the ICC Board, in its absolute discretion and considering that the players should not suffer due to this suspension, has confirmed it will allow the USA cricket team to participate in next month’s ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier 2015 in Ireland and Scotland. The USA U19 team will also be permitted to play in the upcoming Americas U19 Championship in Bermuda.

     

    ICC chairman N.Srinivasan said, “The ICC Board has made this difficult decision after careful consideration and in the best interest of the game and all cricketers in the USA. The country has tremendous potential but because of governance, financial and cricketing challenges, the opportunity to grow the game is not being properly nurtured. The ICC Board had put USACA on notice in its January meeting this year and had hoped that it would show some urgency to address and improve in the areas that were identified as weaknesses. Unfortunately, the response to date has been inadequate and it has proved necessary for the ICC Board to take further action.”

     

    In order to have its suspension lifted and its membership reinstated, USACA will be required to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the ICC Board, by reference to detailed and specific evidence, that conditions relating to governance, finance and its cricket activities have been addressed and remedied in full.

     

    As part of the follow-up to the Board’s decision, the ICC chief executive – assisted by the management and representatives of the BCCI, CA, ECB and the WICB – will assume responsibility for monitoring USACA’s efforts to satisfy the reinstatement conditions on an ongoing basis. The same group will also seek to support the development of a meaningful strategy for the future promotion and development of cricket in the USA, including through the appointment of a locally-based advisory group and unification of all stakeholders.

  • WPP’s Grey Healthcare acquires minority stake in PARx Solutions

    WPP’s Grey Healthcare acquires minority stake in PARx Solutions

    MUMBAI: WPP’s wholly-owned operating company Grey Healthcare Group has acquired a minority stake in US based PARx Solutions, Inc.

     

    PARx has built a platform designed to support physicians and pharmacies as they manage prescription prior authorization requirements that are put in place by payers for an increasing number of branded prescription drugs.

     

    The company’s web-based portal helps physicians and pharmacies manage prior authorization requirement for prescriptions in a streamlined, user-friendly manner, thereby allowing more patients to receive the medications that their physicians have prescribed. The company is headquartered in Burlington, MA, with offices in Louisville, KY, and San Jose, CA, and was founded in 2008.

     

    This investment continues WPP’s strategy of investing in digital and important markets such as the US.

  • First day of ICC Board meeting concludes with unanimous support for key principles

    First day of ICC Board meeting concludes with unanimous support for key principles

    DUBAI: The first day of the International Cricket Council’s Board meetings concluded in Dubai on 28 January with unanimous support for a set of principles relating to the future structure, governance and financial models of the ICC.

     

    The ICC Board unanimously supported the following principles: 

     

    * There will be an opportunity for all Members to play all formats of cricket on merit, with participation based on meritocracy; no immunity to any country, and no change to membership status.  

     

    * A Test Cricket Fund paid equally on an annual basis to all Full Members (except the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Cricket Australia and the England and Wales Cricket Board) will be introduced to encourage and support Test match cricket.

     

    * A larger percentage from the increasing Associate Members’ surplus will be distributed to the higher performing non-Full Members.

     

    * Mutually agreed bi-lateral FTP Agreements which will be legally binding and bankable and will run for the same period as the ICC commercial rights cycle (2015-2023).

     

    * Recognition of the need for strong leadership of the ICC, involving leading Members, which will involve BCCI taking a central leadership responsibility.

     

    * A need to recognise the varying contribution of Full Members to the value of ICC events through the payment of ‘contribution costs’.

     

    * The establishment of an Executive Committee (ExCo) and Financial & Commercial Affairs Committee (F&CA) to provide leadership at an operational level, with five members, including BCCI, CA and ECB representatives. Anybody from within the Board can be elected to Chair the Board and anybody from within ExCo and F&CA can be elected to Chair those Committees. With the ICC undergoing a transitional period that includes a new governance structure and media rights cycle, this leadership will be provided for two years from June 2014 by: a BCCI representative to Chair the ICC Board, a CA representative to Chair the ExCo and an ECB representative to Chair the F&CA.  

     

    * A new company will be incorporated to tender future commercial rights for ICC events.  There will be three major ICC events in each four-year cycle, including the ICC Champions Trophy which will replace the ICC World Test Championship.

     

    * ICC will utilise a more efficient operating model for all ICC events, with a simplified accounting model across ICC income and expenditure to help better manage ICC administrative and event costs.

     

    ICC President Alan Isaac said: “This is an important time for world cricket and it is extremely encouraging that the ICC Board has unanimously supported a set of far-reaching principles that will underpin the long-term prosperity of the global game.

     

    “These principles emphasise the primacy of Test cricket and that for the first time in cricket’s history participation will be based entirely on meritocracy, giving everyone powerful incentives to play better cricket and develop better cricketers. 

     

    “There is more work to be done by the Members in developing their schedules of bilateral cricket while at the ICC we need to work through the detail of the manner in which these principles will be implemented.

     

    “Extensive work will now be undertaken in advance of a follow-up Board meeting next month.”

     

    Isaac also expressed his disappointment with the misconceptions that had been created as a result of a draft position paper produced by three ICC Members being leaked.

     

    “Several months ago I encouraged BCCI, CA and ECB to enter into a constructive dialogue together to help resolve some of the key commercial and governance issues facing the game. These leading cricket nations have worked tirelessly to produce a document which provided the basis for the past few weeks of extremely constructive discussions.

     

    “It is obviously very disappointing that a draft position paper from these Members was leaked as this prompted a debate that ignored the ongoing negotiations between all Members and led to unwarranted criticism of many of those involved in the process.

     

    “The principles agreed today provide clear evidence that through the course of further discussions over the coming weeks we can be increasingly confident in achieving consensus.”

     

    David Richardson, the ICC Chief Executive, added: “An enormous amount of effort has gone into developing a comprehensive set of proposals that include input from all Members.

     

    “The Board has held some very constructive, inclusive, wide-ranging and far-reaching discussions and I am looking forward to bringing to fruition some of the principles that have been proposed and accepted in relation to the cricketing structures of the global game.” 

     

    The ICC Board consists of the chairman or president from each of the 10 Full Members plus three elected Associate Member representatives. Also present at ICC Board meetings is the ICC President, who chairs proceedings, the ICC Chief Executive and the ICC Vice-President.

     

    Alan Isaac                                                      ICC President

    Mustafa Kamal                                               ICC Vice-President

    David Richardson                                          ICC Chief Executive

     

    Zaka Ashraf                                                     Pakistan

    Dave Cameron                                                 West Indies

    Peter Chingoka                                                Zimbabwe

    Giles Clarke                                                     England and Wales

    Jayantha Dharmadasa                                      Sri Lanka

    Wally Edwards                                                  Australia

    Nazmul Hassan                                                Bangladesh

    Imran Khwaja                                                   Associate Member Representative

    Chris Nenzani                                                   South Africa

    Keith Oliver                                                      Associate Member Representative

    Martin Snedden                                                New Zealand

    Neil Speight                                                      Associate Member Representative

    Narayanaswami Srinivasan                               India

  • Sky to launch new pay service on DTT in UK

    Sky to launch new pay service on DTT in UK

    MUMBAI: UK pay TV service provider Sky is developing plans for the launch of a subscription television service on digital terrestrial television (DTT) this year.

    The new service will allow programmes – including sport and movies – through a conventional rooftop aerial and a DTT box for a monthly subscription.

    By bringing back pay-TV content to the DTT platform, Sky aims to create more choice for customers who are interested in upgrading from free-to-air to pay-TV. This the firm says represents an attractive commercial opportunity, benefitting from existing investments in programming and infrastructure, and attracting new customers to Sky over and above current plans for the growth of Sky’s satellite service.

    The line-up of channels on the new service will offer a range of content including sports, movies, entertainment and news. The sports service will include live coverage from the Barclays Premiership and other events. Full details, including branding, pricing and the complete channel line-up, will be revealed closer to launch.

    The new service will make use of existing capacity that Sky currently uses to broadcast Sky Three, Sky News and Sky Sports News. As a result, these channels will cease to be available free-to-air via DTT in advance of the launch of the pay-TV service.

    Sky plans to broadcast its pay-TV channels on DTT using the more efficient MPEG4 compression technology, bringing innovation to the platform and enabling Sky to offer four 24-hour video streams in place of the three Sky channels currently available, with further improvements expected in future. The pay-TV service will use a highly secure conditional access (CA) system similar to the one that Sky uses for its satellite television service.

    To access the service, customers will buy a new set-top box that includes the relevant CA software and MPEG4 decoder. It is anticipated that once the service launches multiple manufacturers will have the opportunity to produce compatible set-top-boxes and other DTT receivers.

    The launch of the new service is subject to approval by Ofcom of the necessary variations to licences held by Sky and National Grid Wireless, which provides DTT transmission and multiplexing services to Sky.

    Sky COO Mike Darcey said, ” We look forward to bringing some of Sky’s most popular content to digital terrestrial viewers. This will give families more choice and increase the availability of leading content and channel brands.”

  • SPTI expands mobile entertainment team

    SPTI expands mobile entertainment team

    MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI) has expanded its mobile entertainment team to better serve its existing and new clients.

    SPTI is adding executives to oversee its mobile teams in Asia-Pacific and Latin America, and providing additional support from SPTI’s headquarters in Culver City, California.

    SPTI senior VP, mobile entertainment, Jason Wells says, “Sony Pictures is firmly committed to growing its mobile entertainment business, and is dedicating significant resources to ensure its future growth. With the global team in place, SPTI’s mobile entertainment group will provide not only content from blockbuster movies such as Casino Royale, but also be a single source for SPE’s integrated mobile offerings ranging from TV series on mobile to interactive games.”

    In the Asia-Pacific region, SPTI’s mobile entertainment team has appointed Rosemary Tan as director, mobile entertainment, Asia-Pacific, reporting to Wells. Based at SPTI’s Asia headquarters in Hong Kong, Tan joins SPTI from Universal Music Asia in Hong Kong where she was regional new media director and head of new media business development since 2003.

    Rose Tsang is SPTI manager, mobile entertainment, Asia-Pacific. Tsang was previously senior new media manager at Universal Music Asia in Hong Kong where she worked with Tan. Tsang will be responsible for implementing and managing mobile strategies, as well as content delivery workflow management.

    Andy Bishop, based in Los Angeles, has been promoted to VP, sales and business development, mobile entertainment. Reporting to Wells, he will be directly responsible for sales and distribution in Canada, Latin America and Brazil, and will work with all of SPTI’s regional offices around the world, overseeing business development and sales strategy with mobile operators and other strategic wireless partners worldwide.

    He was previously SPTI’s director, business development and sales planning, mobile entertainment. Prior to joining Sony, he was manager, business development at Disney.

    SPTI’s mobile entertainment team has also expanded in Latin America with the appointment of Stephen Brough as director, mobile entertainment, Latin America, reporting to Bishop. Based at SPTI’s Latin American headquarters in Miami, Brough heads the mobile entertainment team for the region. Brough and his team are responsible for business development and the sale of mobile TV/video, games and personalization products to mobile operators and customers throughout the region.

    Brough previously held a number of executive positions at VSNL International (formerly Teleglobe) in Miami since 2003, most recently as mobile content sales specialist. Prior to that, he served in various executive posts at Sirius Telecom in Santa Barbara, CA, Vonova Communications in Austin, and at Ernst & Young Consulting in Buenos Aires and Lima. He began his career as a business consultant at Andersen Consulting working in Dallas, Kansas City, and New York.

    SPTI’s mobile entertainment team is charged with extending Sony’s theatrical and TV assets, as well as its range of custom-made mobile content, into mobile distribution outside the US. With mobile product such as the James Bond franchise, the Ratchet and Clank Going Mobile game adaptation from the popular Sony PlayStation franchise, and Spider-Man 3 mobile content, SPTI is the international distribution and marketing arm for SPE’s portfolio of mobile content, including mobile games, such as Wheel of Fortune, tones, images, video and text programmes.