ITV

Tag: Somnath Chatterjee

  • First-ever on-ground ABP LIVE Auto Awards recognises automotive excellence

    First-ever on-ground ABP LIVE Auto Awards recognises automotive excellence

    Mumbai: ABP LIVE, India’s leading digital news platform, concluded its inaugural on-ground award ceremony, the ABP LIVE Auto Awards 2023, which was held in Gurgaon on 15 March. The event marked a historic transition from virtual recognition to a grand physical celebration of automotive brilliance. The prestigious awards honoured the best cars and bikes launched in India during 2023.

    Hyundai Verna was crowned the Car of the Year, while Triumph Speed 400 took home the Bike of the Year award.

    A jury of industry experts, including Achintya Mehrotra, auto expert and rally driver; Somnath Chatterjee, automobile journalist and consulting editor-auto at ABP Network; and Jatin Chhibber, automobile journalist, anchor/producer at Auto LIVE, meticulously evaluated contenders across 28 categories, including design, performance, safety, and sustainability. Rigorous testing was carried out at the ICAT Convention Centre (International Centre for Automotive Technology) and winners were chosen from both four-wheeler and two-wheeler segments, reflecting the breadth of automotive innovation in India.

    The ABP LIVE Auto Awards 2023 highlighted the evolving Indian auto industry, where safety, sustainability, and technology are increasingly important to buyers. The growing popularity of Electric Vehicles (EVs) was also evident with awards for the best EV and Luxury EV given during the ceremony.

    As the automotive landscape evolves with groundbreaking advancements, the ABP LIVE Auto Awards 2024 stand as a testament to the industry’s resilience and innovation. By recognising achievements that redefine standards in performance, sustainability, and design, ABP LIVE remains at the forefront of celebrating automotive excellence.

    Here’s the distinguished list of winners:

    Car categories:

    •    Car of the Year – Hyundai Verna
    •    Value for money car of the Year – MG Comet
    •    Sedan of the Year – Hyundai Verna
    •    Off-roader of the Year – Maruti Suzuki Jimny
    •    MPV of the Year – Toyota Innova Hycross
    •    Subcompact SUV of the Year – Hyundai Exter
    •    Premium SUV of the Year – BMW X1
    •    Luxury SUV of the Year – Range Rover Velar
    •    Luxury Off-Roader of the Year- Lexus LX
    •    Luxury Car of the Year- BMW 7 Series
    •    Luxury EV of the Year- Mercedes-Benz EQE
    •    EV of the Year – Hyundai Ioniq 5
    •    Performance SUV of the Year – Lamborghini Urus Performante
    •    Supercar of the Year – Aston Martin DB12
    •    Variant of the Year – Mahindra Thar 4×2
    •    Facelift of the Year – Tata Nexon
    •    Performance Car of the Year- Mercedes-AMG C43
    •    SUV of the Year – Honda Elevate
    •    Design of the Year – Maruti Suzuki Fronx
    •    Fun to Drive Car of the Year- Maruti Suzuki Jimny

    Bike categories:

    •    Bike of the Year- Triumph Speed 400
    •    Design of the Year- TVS Apache RTR 310
    •    Value for Money Bike of the Year – Honda Shine 100
    •    Off-Roader of the Year- Royal Enfield Himalayan
    •    Premium Bike of the Year- Triumph Street Triple 765 RS
    •    Green Two-Wheeler of the Year- Bajaj Chetak
    •    Performance Green Two-wheeler of the Year- Ultraviolette F77
    •    Scooter of the Year- Hero Xoom

  • ‘We are not a business model-oriented channel’ : Suneet Tandon – Lok Sabha TV CEO

    ‘We are not a business model-oriented channel’ : Suneet Tandon – Lok Sabha TV CEO

     ‘The no-confidence motion against the UPA government last month gave Lok Sabha TV’s ratings the much required boost as well as an opportunity to rake in money by sharing its feed with privately run satellite news channels.

     

    Indiantelevision.com’s Anushree Bhattacharyya caught up with Lok Sabha TV CEO Suneet Tandon to find out more on his plans for the channel. Interestingly, Tandon was elevated as CEO less than a week before the crucial vote. He was earlier the channel’s executive director-marketing.

     

    Excerpts:

    How has the channel fared in the two years of its existence? What are major changes that have taken place?
    The first year was devoted at consolidating the position of the channel. And in its second year, we established the channel’s presence. People now know who we are.

     

    There are channels that spend large amounts on advertising and marketing. We have not gone that route, yet we have carved out our very own position. All this has happened primarily due to the coverage of Lok Sabha sessions as well as other programmes like debates, discussion and documentaries.

    What is the composition of Lok Sabha TV? Apart from Somnath Chatterjee (whose brainchild the channel is), who are members of its governing body?
    The channel owes everything to the Speaker. But the channel is institutionalised under the overall power of the Lok Sabha. Under the Speaker, we are headed by the secretary general. In addition, there is also an advisory council to guide the functioning of the channel and is chaired by the Speaker. The vice chairman of the council is the deputy speaker of Lok Sabha. The council also consists of leaders from all the major parties in Parliament. So there is also that structure which has been set up to help offer the balance.

    How much investment has been made into Lok Sabha TV?
    Well, at this point of time, it is difficult to speak about the figures as I don’t have them with me right now.

    The channel has to depend on the audio-visual unit of the Lok Sabha secretariat for its expenses and infrastructure. Do you face any constraints in funding since you do not have a business model as such?
    We are not a business model-oriented channel. We are a public service channel for which funds are made available by the Parliament from Parliament’s own funds. Though there have been no constraints on our funds, it is our desire that we don’t want to become a burden on anyone. We need to do it in an economical and careful manner and are very conscious of that. We do not try to spend liberally just for the sake of spending.

    How many hours of feed were sold by Lok Sabha TV for the two days (during the Trust Vote)? How was the business on these two days for the channel?
    We did not sell any number of hours of feed as such. News channels picked up largely the important segments. We had earlier informed all the news channels about the rates. We had adopted Doordarshan’s practice of sharing feeds for important events in Parliament.

     

    We are using the same rates used by DD. Apart from charging Rs 1 mn beyond every five minutes of feed, there is also a provision for a one-time payment. For the one-time payment, a news channel has to pay Rs 3 mn in advance and can use the feed for any three important events, which makes it Rs 1 mn for every event.
    ‘We also try to spread cultural awareness not in terms of entertainment but by spreading awareness for our classical heritage and folk heritage. We also air awardwinning films on our channel‘

    Since it’s all about garnering TRPs, how does a channel like Lok Sabha TV manage to catch the attention of viewers?
    By being a credible, sensible and balanced channel. We are not trying to attract the attention of viewers and TRPs by showing any sensational news. We like to deal with our viewers intelligently and try to reflect their concerns because this channel is meant for the thinking citizens of this country. We are very conscious that Lok Sabha TV has to reflect and balance all shades of political opinion. And I must say that there is a lot of feedback that we have got saying that people like watching our channel because we don’t sensationalise anything.

    Do you keep an eye on the ratings of Lok Sabha TV? Are the ratings satisfying enough?
    Yes, we do. We have subscribed to Tam (television audience measurement) every week. Considering the niche nature of the channel, it is very satisfying. Lok Sabha TV is neither a news channel and nor is it a GEC, yet our ratings have been consistently more than CNN and BBC. Also in metros like Delhi and Mumbai, our ratings have been better than many of the established news channels. It’s actually a good reason to be happy for a young channel which does not offer any traditional sensation to its viewers.

    The channel’s viewership soared on 21 and 22 July. Do you feel that Lok Sabha would have been able to garner more ratings if you had not shared the feeds?
    Of course. Those two days were extremely important for Indian democracy. And had we not shared the feed, we would have got as much viewership as that of all the channels put together… all those who took our feed and our viewership.

    Apart from covering the Lok Sabha, what else does the channel concentrate on?
    People have begun to look at us as in terms of quality discussions, debates and documentaries on socio-economic, constitutional and government issues. Moreover, we also try to spread cultural awareness not in terms of entertainment but by spreading awareness for our classical heritage and folk heritage. We also air awardwinning films on our channel.

    At any point of time, have any member of the Advisory Council or the Speaker shown an apprehension on maintaining balance while covering any session?
    No within the Parliament the balance is maintained by the Speaker himself or whosoever is in the chair at that time. And our duty is simply to cover what has happened. And as far as rest of the programmes are concerned, we have not yet faced any significant criticism. But if there are any observations, we take corrective actions.

    In terms of programming, what are the changes that you would like to bring about?
    Every television channel has constantly tweak its programming and look for new ideas to develop interesting programmes. I think we need to give a little more emphasis on fresh programming. And I would also like to see if we could have some more involvement from other states and cities. We also have phone-in programmes where we have toll-free numbers and people can call from anywhere in the country.

    Though there is a website dedicated to Lok Sabha, there is no online property for the channel. Any plans to develop a dedicated web portal for Lok Sabha TV?
    Well, that is something that we can certainly consider taking up. During the time of the debate, many people who had logged on to watch a simultaneous webcast had found that our server had reached its maximum capacity as people from all over the world had logged on it. The servers for loksabha.nic.in got jammed. So, yes, may be there is a need to set up a separate website and increase the bandwith.
    What lies ahead for Lok Sabha TV?
    Technically, we are already at power with any other channel. Our visual quality is as good as any other channel. Yes, we would definitely like to have more interesting programmes and would also like to increase our scope of operation.
  • Kainthola takes over as executive director in LS TV

    Kainthola takes over as executive director in LS TV

    NEW DELHI: Indian Information Service officer Bhupendra Kainthola has taken over as the new executive director (programmes) of Lok Sabha Television, filling the vacancy created in January after the termination of services of Sudhir Tandon, without ascribing reason.

    Kainthola has been posted to LS TV on deputation for three years. He is an IIS officer of the 1989 batch.

    His last posting was as the deputy general manager (media) for the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for the past two years, but he has earlier worked for several years in Doordarshan News in the Mumbai and Delhi kendras. He also functioned in the Press Information Bureau for one year.

    The post of the ED (P) has been held as an additional charge first by the executive producer Vartika Nanda-Sahai, and then by the executive director (marketing), Sunit Tandon, who is in the channel on deputation from the National Films Development Corporation.

    Sudhir Tandon had retired as deputy director general in August 2005 from the charge of Director of the Delhi Kendra of Doordarshan before joining LS TV. He had received a termination order in late December ending his three-year contract (in just over a year), without assigning any reasons.

    The LS TV was first conceived by the Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and offered to Doordarshan.

    However, the public broadcaster had demanded financial support for a minimum of 250 employees. Bhaskar Ghose – a former Director General of Doordarshan and also Secretary in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry – was then given the task of running the channel with a strength of less than 80 people.

    He was appointed with the designation of media adivsor to the speaker and chief executive of the channel. LS TV was formally launched as a 24×7 channel from July 24, 2006 when the Monsoon session commenced. 

    Commencing with the Budget session, the channel is now in charge of transmitting the signals to the Doordarshan tower from where these are uplinked. Earlier, this work was being handled by DD staff.

    Furthermore, two more studios are coming up to augment the facilities, but sources in the channel told indiatelevision.com that there was no corresponding increase in staff strength which was now just over 100.

    The channel still does not have any funds of its own and has to depend on the Audio Visual Unit of the Lok Sabha Secretariat for its expenses and infrastructure.

  • I&B MoS Ambareesh quits over Cauvery award

    I&B MoS Ambareesh quits over Cauvery award

    NEW DELHI: Renowned Kannada actor-turned-politician MH Ambareesh has quit as the minister of state for information and broadcasting and also his seat in the Lok Sabha protesting that the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal had been ”unfair” to Karnataka in its final verdict.

    Ambareesh announced in Bangalore yesterday that he had sent his resignation both to Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee as well as Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, and also sent a copy to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

    However, his resignation was rejected Chatterjee on technical grounds. The Speaker’s office contended that Ambareesh had faxed the resignation, which was not the acceptable method of putting in papers, even as his fans also urged him to withdraw the resignation.

    Ambareesh announced the resignation following pressure by people in his constituency Mandya when he was gheraoed by lawyers when he came to participate in a function in the Karnataka High Court here to release a special cover and cancellation of the Postal department to commemorate the golden jubilee of the High Court.

    Holding that the Tribunal had caused “injustice” to the southern state, he complimented the lawyers for taking up the cause of the state. Congress circles in the state were caught complete unawares by his move.

    Karnataka had been witnessing widespread protests after the 5 February Tribunal award, which directed Karnataka to release 192 tmc ft of water to Tamil Nadu, pegging the state’s requirement at 270 tmc ft as against 419 tmc ft of the lower riparian state.

    The star, who was elected from the Mandya Lok Sabha constituency for a third time in 2004, had led a procession of cine artistes against the award in the city yesterday.

    Meanwhile, G Made Gowda, president of the Cauvery Hitarakshana Horata Samiti, which is spearheading the agitation on the water sharing issue, termed the resignation of Ambareesh as a hasty decision and said the star should continue as a minister and fight for the water rights of the state.