ITV

Tag: NRI

  • CNN-IBN celebrates the few who made a difference

    CNN-IBN celebrates the few who made a difference

    MUMBAI: As part of 60 years of Indian Independence celebrations, CNN-IBN is instituting an annual award CNN-IBN Indian of the Year. This will recognise the Indians whose contribution to the country in 2006 has strengthened the social foundation and helped build brand India in the process. The objective is to create the highest, non-governmental, civilian award conferred on an individual. Additionally, it will provide both a national and international platform to recognise, showcase and revere Indian achievements across different walks of life.

    The awards will salute the best and the most dynamic Indian icons across six main categories: Politics, business, entertainment, sports, public service and NRI. Votes from the public and the electoral college, both holding equal weightage, will then decide the most superlative candidate to be the Indian of the Year!

    CNN-IBN and IBN 7 editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai said, “We at CNN-IBN feel that many Indians and their accomplishments often go unnoticed and so we took it upon ourselves to create an award that would do just the contrary. The CNN-IBN Indian of the Year award will not only recognise, but also felicitate such achievers. The sheer credibility of the channel as well as the involvement of great personalities in the thorough selection process will lend immense authority to this title.”

    CNN-IBN and IBN 7 national sales head Sanjay Dua says, “CNN-IBN Indian of the Year is a property that I am confident brands will find this platform very attractive and lucrative. They will find a sense of pride in being associated with such a prestigious title as it represents Indian achievements across various disciplines, and takes it to an international level”.

    The Judiciary council in concurrence with the TV 18 Editorial Group will undertake the preliminary step of generating a list of prospective nominees for each category. The Council is an elite club of five Padma awardees: Padma Shri Geet Sethi, six times World’s Billards Champion; Padma Vibhushan Soli Sorabjee, former Attorney General of India; Padma Bhushan Nandan Nilekani, CEO of Infosys Technologies; Padma Bhushan Deepak Parekh, Chairman of HDFC and Padma Shri Kiran Bedi, a Magsaysay award recipient.

    Electing winners for each group will be a three-tier process involving the Judiciary Council, the Electoral College and the citizens of India. The Electoral College, composed of 250 eminent citizens, each recognised in their respective fields, will vote for their chosen aspirant(s). The process of Vox Populi will be conducted simultaneously, through two means: ibnlive.com – for online casting of the citizen’s franchise and 2622 – voting through people’s mobile phones. Both, the Electoral College and the Indian public will be assigned 50 per cent of the vote weightage in determining winners from within every category.

    The Indian of the Year besides being bestowed with this exalted title will also receive a trophy provided by Swarovski CCB at an event held in Delhi on 6 February.

  • Shyam Equities takes 20% stake in Rajat Sharma’s INS for Rs 1 billion

    Shyam Equities takes 20% stake in Rajat Sharma’s INS for Rs 1 billion

    MUMBAI: Rajat Sharma’s Independent News Service Private Limited (INS), the holding company of India TV, has announced the offloading of 20 per cent stake to Bangalore-based Shyam Equities Private Limited. Shyam Equities is paying Rs 1 billion for the stake, which gives INS an enterprise valuation of Rs 5 billion.

    According to a company release, INS’s enterprise valuation is up a whopping 86 per cent from Rs 2.7 bilion nine months ago.

    Since Shyam Equities is a 100 per cent Indian entity, the foreign individual, foreign company, NRI, OCB, FII and PIO holding in INS remains unchanged.

    The investment information has been filed with the information and broadcasting ministry.

    Sharma expressed “excitement over the strategic growth blue print that will be executed 2008”. The blue print, Sharma said, includes large investments in key strategic areas beyond India TV. This includes a bouquet of channels, a distribution blitz in key international markets, and a significant entry into non-news and non-television media.

    In March last year Fuse+ Media, an entity of ComVentures, a leading Silicon Valley-based venture capital and private equity group with over $1.5 billion of assets under management, had placed an equivalent of Rs 509 million of FDI in INS for a 19.17 per cent stake.

  • Rajshri launches broadband entertainment portal, to release ‘Vivah’ for viewers at $9.90

    Rajshri launches broadband entertainment portal, to release ‘Vivah’ for viewers at $9.90

    NEW DELHI: Rajshri Group, one of the oldest production and distribution houses in the country, has launched a broadband entertainment portal, www.rajshri.com, that will offer streaming and downloading of various forms of content including movies, music videos, concerts, and documentaries.

    Rajshri’s latest movie, Vivah, will be premiered on the portal simultaneously along with its theatrical release on Friday. This is the first time in India that a film is being made available on the internet at the day of its release.

    The downloading of Vivah will be at a payment of $9.9 through an international credit card, said Rajshri Media (P) Ltd managing director Rajjat Barjatya. The copies do not run the risk of being pirated because of a special software that has been used, he added.

    Rajshri Media (P) Ltd will be the group’s digital media initiatives arm. This will cover streaming services which users don’t have to pay for. Among the broad gamut of content available is the historic midnight speech of late Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru on 15 August 1947. “We are also soon going to add humor, management-related content and spiritualism to our site,” said Barjatya.

    Describing the new initiative as an “historic moment,” Barjatya said the company had been working on this project for the past two years. The aim seems to be converting the ‘non-consumers into consumers’ while attempting to break the stranglehold of piracy.

    Barjatya is also targeting about 25 million Indians abroad, NRIs and Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) put together, who are “extremely keen to stay in touch with their roots and will pay for rich and origial Indian content as against the pirated one.”

    About 51 per cent Indians abroad spent time daily on the net, he revealed. Besides, Indian content was also becoming extremely popular among non-Indians across the world.

    So how will the box office takings of Vivah, for instance, be a hit because of online viewing? “We are getting into a four screen scenario, instead of a two-screen one. Cinema theatres were always there, and then came TV, the big screen and the small screen. Now there is the internet and the mobile,” said Barjatya.

    “Each of these screens are a different experience and one cannot replace any of the other. It is one thing to see a film on the Net alone, and quite another doing so with the family on a TV set, or watching it in a dark hall with a lot of people, so there is no cutting into turfs,” he added.

    The delivery of movies through the internet could also cut down piracy. “If there is a viewer in say Finland, I can now get to him before the pirates can,” Barjatya said.

    A key feature of the site is that the movies can’t be pirated. “We have used a software which ‘wraps around the programme’ and while it is being streamed, it cannot be copied, nor downloaded. Even while it is ‘sitting’ on the hard disk for 72 hours, it cannot be made into a CD or DVD,” he said.

    The portal is also aimed at the tech-savvy younger audience. “The site has a lot of features. You can actually saute the film, slice and dice it, rate it, send a link to a friend and read what others have to comment about it,” Barjatya said.

  • Get connected with India and Indians Worldwide with Go Yaar.com

    Get connected with India and Indians Worldwide with Go Yaar.com

    MUMBAI: The Indian community in India and around the world now has an exciting and easy-to-use tool to connect and interact with friends, batch mates and colleagues online- GoYaar.com.

    Go, Yaar! is unique among social networking websites in India that build directly on the communities that are already important to individuals — their schools, universities, and companies. The site was launched by an Indian-born former McKinsey & Company consultant in September 2006.

    Registering using a company email address automatically validates a user as a member of a company community. Alternatively, users can indicate their school and over 3,000 college affiliations in India, the US, and Canada if registering using their personal email addresses.

    Once registered, a user can design a personalized profile, interact with and meet new members of their academic and company communities, invite friends to events, and form groups. In addition, Go, Yaar! provides a set of highly flexible and fully integrated email, video, photo album, blogging, instant messaging and peer-to-peer collaboration tools, all as a one-stop source informs the release.

    “With more than 40 million Internet users, India has just discovered the potential of social networking,” says Go, Yaar!’s CEO and founder, Phalgun Raju.

    “There is a tremendous opportunity for Go, Yaar! to redefine the space and become India’s premier social networking destination given its focus on India and NRIs, its multitude of features, and its rapidly growing member base,” adds Raju.

    The website is entirely free. “According to an April 2006 study by Nielsen/NetRatings, the top social networking sites in the U.S. are experiencing 47% annual growth,” explained Raju. “The social networking market in India is well positioned to grow even faster given India’s extremely rapid growth of Internet users and PC penetration.”

    Go, Yaar! provides its members with customized privacy settings, which enable them to control who can view their content, and an ever-evolving robust set of interactive tools to create and share information while building relationships.

    “To continuously enhance our users’ experience, we are targeting adding key new features every month to the site,” said Raju. “The growth of 4.5 million new mobile phone subscribers per month across the country will be a key driver for Go, Yaar!’s growth as we unveil mobile capabilities in the future.”

  • NRI group to launch terrestrial movie channel in Africa

    NRI group to launch terrestrial movie channel in Africa

    MUMBAI: Channel 2 Group Corporation in a joint venture with Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) has announced its plans to launch a 24 hour movie channel Channel 2 Movies.

    With this new initiative, the Channel 2 Group Corp. attempts to expand the terrestrial broadcast operations across Africa. It will incorporate a mix of the latest entertainment from Hollywood and Bollywood.

    According to an official release, the channel finds it “imperative to address the targeted audience with customized entertainment options.”

    Soaps like Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki and Kyun Ki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, with English subtitles are said to be popular amongst African viewers.

    Channel 2 also claims to have a strong network with the Indian Film Industry and has signed a strategic alliance with Kenya Film Commission (KFC). With support from the government, Kenya now opens its doors to the Indian Film Industry.

    The Channel 2 Group Corporation Chairperson Ajay Sethi said, “Channel 2 will be the first terrestrial unique movie channel in Africa, and will bring to its viewers the very latest in movie and entertainment mix. Channel 2 shall be expanded to other African countries on terrestrial platforms and has already entered into telecast agreement with Uganda Broadcasting Corporation on the national channel. Our expertise in this field is well established, and with this launch will further strengthen the group’s foothold in Africa.”

    “The total population of Kenya is 40 million, of which KBC already commands an 85 per cent viewership. KBC is a national broadcaster with its strong nationwide infrastructure adding great value to the joint venture and making it a commercially viable project. We expect that the dearth of terrestrial movie channels in Africa will turn Channel 2 into a hugely popular and much desired movie channel.”

    He added, “The channel has been stylized keeping African sensitivities in mind, so the look and feel of the channel will be very African. Channel 2 Movies not only promises its viewers premium quality entertainment, but also provides multinationals and other corporations a world class media vehicle to advertise their wares on.”

    Channel 2 will be hosting the IIFA post award party on the 16 June 2006 at the Grand Hyatt, Dubai. Kenya Film Commission CEO Wachira Waruru will be present at the awards, informs the release.

    In addition, another associate company of the Channel 2 Group Corp., UAE’s Channel 729, has already signed a telecast agreement with KBC, whereby KBC has broadcasted hours of Channel 729 free to air on its terrestrial channel to its viewers, adds the release.