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Tag: New Delhi

  • New Zealand launches new education brand campaign

    New Zealand launches new education brand campaign

    MUMBAI: New Zealand has launched a new education brand campaign, the cornerstone of which is a new short film – the ‘New Zealand Education Story’ – which illustrates the country’s unique learning and lifestyle opportunities.

    The film shows what New Zealand education can offer, illustrates what young people have achieved in the world after gaining a New Zealand education, and gives a flavour of the unique ‘kiwi’ lifestyle.

    “We wanted to create a way for people to see, understand and even feel the kind of experiences they could have through a New Zealand education. We are very excited to be sharing this new film with India,” says Education New Zealand Regional Director South Asia Ziena Jalil.

    “Our education system has much to offer Indian students looking for overseas study options: we have an internationally regarded education system that focuses on innovation and creative thinking – traits that employers look for, with excellent lifestyle options in a safe multi-cultural environment.”

    Launched this month by New Zealand’s Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce, the captivating two-minute video is accompanied by a range of other materials that illustrate the unique benefits of a New Zealand education.

    This new approach to introducing New Zealand education will be seen in India through a series of activities over the next few months, including upcoming education fairs and other informational sessions.

    Each year, more than 11,000 students from India study in New Zealand, making it New Zealand’s second largest student market. Indian enrolments for the upcoming academic year are also projected to increase.

    India and New Zealand share several joint education initiatives, including the India New Zealand Education Council – a bilateral programme aimed at strengthening collaboration in higher education and skills development, and jointly chaired by the Indian Minister for Human Resource Development and the New Zealand Minister for Tertiary Education.

    Ms Jalil says New Zealand is focused on growing its international education industry and has put in place policies to make New Zealand a top choice for students.

    “For example, last month the New Zealand Government announced that more international students will be allowed to work while they study, enabling them to gain valuable English language work experience and cover some of their living costs.”

    “International students and education partnerships are important to New Zealand,” says Ms Jalil. “We value the connections they form between New Zealand and other countries, and between peoples, and the contribution these visiting students make to regional communities and economies in New Zealand and also their home countries.”

    The New Zealand Government has also strengthened its India team of education market development managers, who are currently based in New Delhi and will soon be joined by additional staff in Mumbai. This team is building New Zealand’s unique education relationship with India to create a rich and enduring education dialogue between our two countries, says Ms Jalil.

  • Deutsche Bank and PVR Nest once again bring in the festive cheer to 5000 kids from NGOs across cinemas in five cities

    Deutsche Bank and PVR Nest once again bring in the festive cheer to 5000 kids from NGOs across cinemas in five cities

    MUMBAI: After the joyful success last year, ‘5000 Popcorns’ returned to kick start the festive cheer in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Pune and Bengaluru, which  witnessed packed cinema auditoriums with 5000 children sitting transfixed to watch the heart-warming ‘Stanley ka Dabba’, an Amole Gupte film.

    Amole Gupte himself joined the children at PVR Goregaon, Mumbai and interacted with them amongst cheers and applause.

    In its second year ‘5000 Popcorns’, which is a joint initiative of Deutsche Bank in India and PVR Nest, a registered foundation of India’s leading multiplex chain PVR Limited, brought together 5000 children from not for profit and community schools in one of the largest simultaneous movie screenings across cities. The children enjoyed the film that takes you through the wonder years of childhood while skilfully weaving in messages for providing education to all children and opposing child labour.

    Speaking on the occasion, Shrinath Bolloju, Chief Operating Officer, for Deutsche Bank in India said “After the stirring and warm response we got from the kids last year, we at Deutsche Bank are pleased to once again bring in the Christmas and New Year’s cheer to the children through the magic of cinema, even while sharing a beautiful and inspiring social message. We are delighted with the enthusiastic response we have received from the children and NGOs.”

    Ms. Deepa Menon, Vice President- Corporate Social Responsibility at PVR Limited said “We are extremely happy to partner with Deutsche Bank through ‘5000 Popcorns’ and being able to bring entertainment to such a large number of children. Such platforms enable children to explore their talents on a broader canvas. It is not just about entertainment, PVR Nest, through its creative education programs has aimed at nourishing children’s creativity and building their capacities on film making and publishing of over 1,00,000 children  from 100 city schools each year.”

  • LCOs give their views to parliamentary committee on IT

    LCOs give their views to parliamentary committee on IT

    MUMBAI: If one thought that the local cable operators (LCOs) would give up without a good fight for their rights, one was surely mistaken. When around 10 LCOs from across states met the Parliamentary Committee on Information and Technology today in New Delhi, they ensured that their voices were heard on digital addressable systems (DAS). The meeting that went on for two and half hours was attended by 20 members of parliament.

     

    While each LCO was heard by the committee, it was ABS 7 Star CMD Atul Saraf who said that the LCOs were not against digitisation, but against mandated digitisation. “Digitisation should be voluntary,” he said in the meeting.

     

    The LCOs represented the trials and tribulations of the cable TV consumer to the committee. “We spoke on consumer interest and what they had gained with digitisation,” informed Cable Operators Federation of India president Roop Sharma. The operators opined that the consumer should be able to choose his set top box (STB).

     

    Apart from Saraf and Sharma, the others who were a part of the committee included: Pramod Pandya, Swapan Chowdhary, Jeevan Khanna, Ajeet Singh, Sudhish Kumar, GS Oberoi, Gaurav Gupta, Chandradeep Bhatia and Paramjit Singh.

     

    “The consumer should be able to buy portable STBs which gives him access to internet, video-on-demand and other facilities. Why should every consumer be burdened with the same quality of STB. There should be a provision that if someone wants to buy an expensive STB they should be able to do so,” said Sharma.

     

    The operators also suggested that since it is the consumer who pays for the STB, they should be allowed to own it. “Also consumer should have the option to change STBs and his service provider. Currently if Hathway seeds a STB in a consumer’s house, they cannot switch to another MSO,” said Sharma to the committee.

     

    The LCOs also raised concern over their own existence. Many in the meeting felt that the LCOs have been left at the mercy of the MSOs. They also said that the process of billing and the power to switch off STBs should be with the LCOs and not MSOs.

     

    The operators put a point stating that TRAI should first successfully complete digitisation of phase I and II and then start the work in phase III and IV.

     

    On the issue of entertainment tax, the LCO representatives opined that there should be uniformity in taxation throughout. “Also we told them that entertainment tax should be collected per household and not per TV set,” informed Sharma.

     

    The MPs asked the LCOs for solutions to the issues with digitisation, to which the LCOs suggested that the long pending Broadcasting Bill and the DTH Act needs to be brought in to regulate and control the  the broadcasters and DTH players respectively.

     

    Also a point on implementation of vertical monopoly and cross media holding on immediate basis, before going ahead with further digitisation was made.
    The committee will also be meeting Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari in a couple of days, after which they will come out with a recommendation which will be submitted to the I&B Ministry.

  • Get set for an International Conference on Digital Libraries

    Get set for an International Conference on Digital Libraries

    MUMBAI: Wouldn’t it be really good if all the knowledge from across the world can be accessed from one place? That is what a recent initiative by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) aims to do. TERI is organising the International Conference on Digital Libraries (ICDL) from 27-29 November 2013 at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.

     

    The ICDL 2013 is titled “Vision 2020: Looking back 10 years and Forging New Frontiers” and will review the developments in the past and chalk out a strategy for the future. In addition to conference sessions, thematic workshop-cum-panel discussions are planned to provide a deeper meaning to the theme of the conference.

     

    The objective of the conference is to focus on the creation, adoption, implementation, and utilisation of Digital Library (DL) and their future implications. It also aims to provide an international forum for sharing of experiences among researchers, educators, practitioners, and policy makers from a variety of disciplines such as library and information science, information and communication technology, archival and museum studies, knowledge management and many areas in the fields of Science, Social sciences and Humanities.

     

    Some of the eminent speakers who will be attending the conference include Ian Witten, Professor, Computer Science, University of Waikato, New Zealand; P Anandan, Managing Director, Microsoft Research India, India; Jagdish Arora, Director, INFLIBNET, India; Jean-Marc Comment, Chef d’unité, Département fédéral de l’Intérieur, Archives fédérales AF Unité des techniques de l’information Archivstrasse, Switzerland; Yan Quan Liu, Professor, Southern Connecticut State University, USA; A R D Prasad, Professor and Head, DRTC, Indian Statistical Institute, India; Chunxiao Xing, Professor & Director, WEB and Software Technology, R&D Center, RIIT, Tsinghua University, ChinaR&D Center, RIIT, Tsinghua University, China and A R D Prasad, Professor and Head, DRTC, Indian Statistical Institute, India among others.

  • Ten Sports readies to dribble with Junior Hockey World Cup

    Ten Sports readies to dribble with Junior Hockey World Cup

    MUMBAI: Right now, the nation is moaning about the retirement of Indian cricket great Sachin Tendulkar. Clearly, the focus is on cricket and punters are betting that his farewell test is going to notch up never before heard of ratings.

     

    But wait, here’s a channel which is hoping to take the viewership of hockey – another national passion  (until cricket took over) –  up a few notches as it readies for a blast which is going to hit the air waves in the next 10 days. Ten Sports, which is the official broadcaster of the Hero Junior Men’s Hockey World Cup 2013 says it is going to unleash a promotional blitzkrieg for it. To be held in Delhi from 6-15 December, it features 16 national teams and will be played out at the Major Dhyanchand National Stadium, New Delhi.

     

    “We are building up a strategy to make hockey really big. We know that the sport has huge potential to catch up with cricket as it has the same energy and vigour,” says Ten Sports CEO Rajesh Sethi, adding that the promotional strategy includes going big on social media to build the buzz for the tournament.

     

    Commentary is going to primarily be in English unlike rival Star Sports which normally telecasts hockey with Hindi commentary.

     

    In fact it’s not just Junior Hockey World Cup, the channel, which also has a right to broadcast the Hockey World Cup that will be played in Netherlands in May-June 2014, the Commonwealth Games, Glasgow (23 July- 3 August, 2014), and 2014 Asian Games (September-October 2014) scheduled to be held in South Korea, is planning a huge build up for all these spectacles from now onwards.

     

    “Hockey forms a big chunk of all these games. With the telecast of the Junior World Cup, we will start building up an environment for the sport,” says Sethi, who is closing on some “big advertising deals” for the tournament very soon.

     

    According to sources, the channel is also planning to rope in a well-known person as the brand ambassador to promote the tournament.

     

    Rival channels are not too disturbed by Ten Sports push.

     

    Says one of them: “Ten Sports has a long term agreement with International Hockey Federation (FIH) and the way we try to make all our events big, even they will do that. There’s really no need for us to be troubled because of that. The sport has its loyal audience; hopefully Ten Sports’ push will expand the viewership. The entire sports industry in India wants other sports to develop viewership so that our dependency on cricket can reduce.”

     

    All league matches featuring India will be played in prime time slot at 8:00 pm, beginning 6 December. Should the GECs be worried?

  • Sidharth Birla elected as FICCI president

    Sidharth Birla elected as FICCI president

    NEW DELHI: Entrepreneur Sidharth Birla is the new Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) president for the year 2014.

     

    Birla will assume office in his new role at the conclusion of the 86th Annual General Meeting of FICCI slated to be held on 21 December in New Delhi.

     

    Welcoming the announcement, current FICCI president Naina Lal Kidwai said, “I have worked closely with Sid over the past two years and have no doubt that FICCI will benefit enormously from his leadership and continuing engagement at FICCI.”

     

    Aged 56 years, Birla holds an MBA Degree from IMEDE (now IMD), Switzerland and a Science Degree (Honors in Physics) from Calcutta University. He is also an alumnus of the Harvard Business School.

     

    He is a company director and entrepreneur with core business interests in manufacturing. He is chairman of Xpro India – a polymers processing company where he is also the founder, and of Digjam, manufacturer of woollen worsted suiting fabrics. He has financial sector interests and links in private buess,sin and an enduring connect with corporate laws, having chaired FICCI’s Corporate Laws Committee for an extended period. He is a government nominee on the Central Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (now in his third such term).

     

    Birla is a trustee on some family educational and philanthropic bodies, and a member of the Board of Governors of the Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Pilani.
     

  • IIMC and QUT join hands for training and capacity building

    IIMC and QUT join hands for training and capacity building

    NEW DELHI: The Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), New Delhi, and Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Australia have agreed to collaborate in academic programmes and in frontier areas of research in Media and Communication.

     

    An International Cooperation Agreement to this effect was signed by Information and Broadcasting Ministry Secretary and IIMC chairman Bimal Julka and Professor Peter Coaldrake, Vice Chancellor of the Queensland University of Technology (QUT).

     

    The agreement envisages bringing ICT in academic programmes in a significant way. Both the institutes have agreed for the development of joint venture projects and also for opening avenues for developing a collaborative doctoral programme to benefit students and faculty. The bilateral cooperation agreement also envisages organization of joint academic and scientific activities, such as courses, conferences, seminars, symposia or lectures, exchange of staff and students and exchange of materials and publications of common interest.

    One of the core areas of the agreement is to facilitate training of senior and mid-level Indian Information Service officers at the QUT, especially in use of modern technology and social media for providing information about government policies to stakeholders. The objective is to ensure skill development of IIS officers in critical areas of the changing media landscape.

     

    This is the first agreement signed by IIMC seeking international collaboration and partnership with a foreign university. The agreement aims to facilitate a two-way value added training and capacity building programme in the field of Mass Media and Communication.

     

    This cooperation agreement will be valid for five years and will be reviewed six months prior to expiry and may be renewed for a further term by mutual agreement.

     

  • Green Gold wins Licensor of the Year Award

    Green Gold wins Licensor of the Year Award

     MUMBAI: Green Gold Licensing & Merchandising has been awarded the ‘Licensor of the Year 2013’ at the eighth Star Retail Awards held in New Delhi. This is the second consecutive time that Green Gold’s licensing business has been recognised for its unique efforts.

     

    The Star Retailer Awards is a place which witnesses the coming together of the whole retail industry to celebrate and honour the best performers. The awards are presented by Franchise India Holdings.

     

    “This is the second successive year that Green Gold has achieved this recognition. We are really honoured and the star of the entire programme is Chhota Bheem. Three years back we had to put in a lot of efforts to set the licensing division and today with 100 + licensees on board, Green Gold is a big force to reckon with. Our aim is to continue bringing in the best products for Chhota Bheem fans and grow the licensing market in India. We have also signed up new licenses for Mighty Raju, our other show on Pogo,” said Sourcing & Licensing vice president Madhav Prabhala.

     

    Green Gold is the creator and producer of the hit series’ Chhota Bheem, Mighty Raju, Luv Kushh, Chorr Police, Krishna Balram on kids’ TV and cinema. Apart from licensing, the company is into animation, merchandising, franchising stores, gaming application development and movies.

     

    “With the licensing sector getting organised and process driven, we are happy with our growth and we thank all our licensees for being a part of our growth. We would like to sincerely thank the Franchise India team and the Jury for acknowledging and appreciating our efforts,” said Green Gold executive director Samir Jain.

  • Strontium Hosts Channel Conference

    Strontium Hosts Channel Conference

    MUMBAI: Strontium Technology hosted its Channel Partner Conference on 25th October 2013 at The Oberoi Hotel, New Delhi. Strontium is a Singapore based Flash Storage and PC memory manufacturer. The conference was focused on changes in memory industry and how Strontium is turning market challenges into new opportunities.

    “Following the merger of Elpida Memory into Micron Technology and the exit of Tier 2 Taiwan manufacturers, the memory chip industry is moving to Oligopoly which means lower volatility in future,” Vivian Singh, President and CEO, Strontium Technology, said at the event.

    Strontium showcased its products and technologies during the conference besides presenting its roadmap for the year 2014.”The latest smart phones and tablets need high performing memory cards for capturing, storing and accessing HD videos, pictures, media files, apps and data. Strontium NITRO cards, with 60 to 85Mbps transfer speeds, are ideal solution,” Vivian added. “Strontium will continue to focus on selling retail products in emerging markets especially India through traditional channel, organized retailers and online stores.”

    Strontium also participated in Gitex Technology show in Dubai from 20th to 24th October 2013 to expand product reach into Africa, CIS and GCC. “As part of our growth and expansion plans, we are going to focus on African markets in the next 2 years. We see tremendous potential in these markets.” Vivian added.

  • Reliance Digital named The Consumer Durables Retailer of the Year

    Reliance Digital named The Consumer Durables Retailer of the Year

    MUMBAI: Reliance Digital, the consumer electronics & durables arm of Reliance Retail has been recognised as ‘The Consumer Durables Retailer of the Year’ at the 8thAnnual Star Retailer Awards 2013 held in New Delhi.

    Reliance Digital is the consumer durables and information technology concept from Reliance Retail. The award recognises Reliance Digital’s exemplary efforts in helping consumers bring home the latest & best in technology from the widest selection at the lowest assured price with complete peace of mind through lifelong support.

    Reliance Digital aims to fulfil the dream of every Indian through its nationwide network of conveniently located stores by providing a delightful shopping experience of products & solutions. Further, through its sub-brand ResQ, Reliance Digital provides customers with an opportunity to experience exceptional service at several touch-points.Inspired by the Reliance philosophy for excellence, ResQ has created an enviable reputation and a capability to understand and deliver solutions to meet consumer needs. ResQ experts offer guidance to customers, demonstrate a solution and help them with identifying relevant products and solutions. ResQ also takes on the responsibility of installation and networking that ensures optimum performance for all products and solutions.

    Speaking on the award, Mr Brian Bade, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Reliance Digital said, “We are extremely proud to be recognised as ‘The Consumer Durables Retailer of the Year’. This award has added another feather to our cap and is an inspiration to our entire team behind it. We hope to take the unique Reliance Digital experience further and we are looking forward to bringing happiness to many more homes which continues to be our biggest incentive.”