By A Correspondent
Yahoo! India has announced that the latest version of Yahoo! Mail can now be accessed in eight new regional languages: Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali, Marathi and Gujarati.
With a simultaneous rollout in 27 new markets including 22 new languages and 16 new countries, Yahoo! Mail is now available in 46 new languages and more than 70 markets worldwide.
By A Correspondent
The premiere of Doraemon – Nobita’s Dinosaur on Disney Channel has delivered the best viewership performance since 2005 for a kid’s show at 5.24 TVR among all kids (CS 4-14 ABC) in HSM, beating its own record rating of 4.3 TVR for Doraemon in Nobita’s Great Adventure in the South Seas which was telecast on June 5.
The channel received an overwhelming response across all channels with 33% share of viewing in Hindi Speaking Markets (HSM) and 28% share of viewing in all India during the primary telecast of the movie.
The premiere ranked #1 across the time slot in the kids genre with 66% share of viewing in HSM and 63% in All India among all kids (CS 4-14 ABC).
The viewership in certain markets was particularly noteworthy with Punjab(1 Mn+) showcasing double digit TVR with 10.55. This was followed by Delhi at 8.71 TVR, UP at 8.11 TVR, among others.
“It is wonderful to see kids and families enjoy Disney Channel’s rich menu of content. Doraemon has an engaging storyline and a familiar setting that every Indian kid can relate to. This success is testament to the unique way in which Disney engages with its kids and family audience at multiple levels,” said Natasha Malhotra, VP and GM, Walt Disney Television International India.
Across the week, over 17.9 million individuals and 6.5 million kids tuned into movie from All India.
In addition to its popularity with Disney Channel audience, Doraemon has also been ranked as the #1 character for kids across India by Ormax India in October 2011.
By A Correspondent
NDTV Convergence has launched its financial and business portal NDTVProfit.com in a new avatar as a one-stop destination for live market data, research and expert insight and business news.
The website is focused on the fast growing community of investors in the country, many of them first-timers, and provides financial tools, easy and intuitive access to detailed and relevant data, tips and know-how to help power personal wealth creation.
The website has launched a brand new portfolio tool, which is convenient, easy-to-use and very secure, to track and plan not just an individual’s wealth, but also that of his entire family.
Riding on its close, convergent relationship with NDTVProfit, the new website also brings the user the opportunity to interact one-on-one with experts and anchors, get stock recommendations and tips in real-time on the popular program “Buy or Sell”. The website also offers the users a chance to become a guru in his/her own community on the Profit board.
Additionally, a new video pod makes it easy to access NDTVProfit’s programming in hundreds of easy-to-consume videos. The users can also view their favourite shows on the site.
The new features are designed to bring the users a clutter-free, non-intimidating experience as they tracks markets live, gets experts’ views and immediate insight on market dynamics and a great viewing and reading experience.
Geodesic has collaborated on the website with NDTV Convergence as the technical partner.
By A Correspondent
Premium lifestyle channel NDTV Good Times is presenting the second edition of the NDTV Good Times Food Awards, honouring veterans and achievers from the food industry, at a gala night at The Westin, Gurgaon on December 17.
NDTV Good Times is India’s top-ranked English-language lifestyle television channel and the KAFF NDTV Good Times Food Awards are considered to be the definitive guide to the best in the industry. The awards are selected by an expert jury of renowned names such as Vinod Dua, Ritu Dalmia, Marut Sikka, Aditya Bal, Vicky Ratnani, and Rocky and Mayur. The awards will be hosted once again by the witty and charming Rocky and Mayur.
This year the awards consist of two categories – the jury’s choice and the viewer’s choice award which is a single award category where the viewers will decide ‘The Best Foodie City’ through their votes. The city that gets the maximum votes gets crowned The Foodie City of India.
Announcing the second NDTV Good Times Food Awards, Smeeta Chakrabarti, Chief Executive Officer, NDTV Lifestyle, said: “After the overwhelming response we received last year, we are really looking forward to present the second NDTV Good Times Food Awards. This year we’re pulling out all stops to make the awards bigger. With the introduction of the viewers’ choice award category, we hope to involve our loyal viewers in the process of choosing their favourite foodie city.”
There, winners are chosen by on-ground, SMS and online voting on goodtimes.ndtv.com. For selection through on-ground voting, 10 cities have been short-listed, where 100 ballot boxes have been kept in popular restaurants for a period of 3-4 weeks from November 10 onwards.
Votes from these ballot boxes are tabulated by Ernst & Young and, along with the SMS and online figures, will decide the winning city. One lucky person and the restaurant that gets the maximum number of votes from the winning city gets the chance to attend the gala night in Delhi.
The jury has already shortlisted the top five restaurants on the basis of the research conducted by Ernst & Young. Final scoring will be reviewed one more time closer to the awards for a final seal of approval from the jury and winners will be announced on the night of the awards.
All awards are based on achievements during the preceding 12 months.
By A Correspondent
Natarajan Chandrasekaran, CEO of India’s largest IT Services company, Tata Consultancy Services, has been conferred the Dataquest IT Person of the Year award for 2011-one of the most coveted honours in Indian IT.
The award is given by IT magazine Dataquest every year to an individual for making extraordinary contribution to Indian IT. The jury led by Mr Pramod Bhasin of Genpact (and 2010 Dataquest IT person of the year) unanimously decided on Mr Chandrasekaran who is regarded as the face of next generation leadership in the Indian IT. In the context of most of the first generation leaders stepping down, there was apprehension about a leadership vacuum being created. The jury felt that Mr Chandrasekaran, through his able leadership has proved that any such fear is unfounded.
A TCS insider, Mr Chandrasekaran also stands as a role model for millions of programmers and engineers as he started as a trainee in TCS and rose to become its top leader.
“Chandra’s able leadership is a testimony to the fact that Indian IT companies have it in them to grow extraordinary leadership internally,” noted Pradeep Gupta, Chairman of CyberMedia, the publishers of Dataquest. “The success of Indian IT is not a one-time achievement of only a few individuals,” he added.
Kiran Karnik was awarded for his Lifetime Contribution to Indian IT. Mr Karnik, who led NASSCOM as president for seven years also headed the government appointed board of Satyam that moved fast and in a transparent manner and was instrumental in establishing the credibility of India in the wake of the Satyam crisis. He is also associated with many educational institutions.
The online IT return filing system of the Income Tax Department, Government of India was awarded the Dataquest Pathbreaker Award for 2011 making the lives of millions of taxpayers smoother, while reducing refund time drastically and enhancing overall efficiency. Between 2004 to 2011, there are five government projects/companies/persons who have won this coveted award.
The 2010 Dataquest IT Person of the year Award had gone to Pramod Bhasin, Vice Chairman (then CEO) of BPO company Genpact. And as the winner of the last year Mr Bhasin headed the jury this year that included Pradeep Gupta, CMD of CyberMedia India (as Vice Chairman); Vijay Thadani, CEO, NIIT; Shankar Aggarwall, Addl Secretary, Department of IT; Ganesh Lakshminarayanan, MD, Dell India; Col H S Bedi, CEO, Tulip; Amrita Gangotra, CIO, Airtel; Professor Pankaj Jalote, Director, IIIT Delhi, and Shyam Malhotra, Director, CyberMedia India.
The awards, now in the 19th year, were conferred at a glittering ceremony in the presence of industry leaders and leading CIOs. The awards night this year also included the PC Quest Best IT Implementaation awards, given by PC Quest, another CyberMedia publication.
Dataquest also honoured top manufacturers, service providers and institutions based on their Dataquest Top 20 rankings for FY 2010-11 and their performance in various surveys conducted by the magazine throughout the year.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) retained its top position as the No 1 IT company and No 1 IT exporter. It also bagged the newly instituted Top Engineering Services company award.
The Dataquest Top Personal Systems company award went to Dell India for recording the highest combined revenue in sales of desktops and laptops.
Hewlett Packard (HP) India won the Top Server Company award while the newly instituted Top Storage Company award went to EMC India. With dominant market share, HP also won the Top Imaging and Printing Company for 2010 making it a total of two awards.
Cisco India won the Top Networking Company award for recording the highest sales in networking equipment during 2010-11. The IT training pioneer NIIT won the award for Top Training Company for yet another year.
IBM India remained ahead of others and won the top IT Services Company (India Market) award. The pioneering BPO Company Genpact with revenues of over one billion dollars bagged the Top BPO company award. Ingram Micro India bagged the Top Distribution Company award for 2011. SAP India topped the software products sales to bag the Top Software Company award for 2011.
Despite tough competition from new pure play smart phone makers and Indian companies, Nokia continued to lead the smart phone market and bagged the Top Smartphone Company award for 2011.
HCL Infosystems won the Best Employer (IT) award based on its No 1 rank in DQ-CMR Best Employer Survey (IT) 2011. BPO firm, vCustomer won the Best Employer BPO award for the fifth time in a row.IITBombay won the Top T School award based on its No 1 rank in DQ-CMR Top T School Survey 2011. It was the winner last year too.
The winners are selected by a jury of eminent individuals from IT industry, IT user organizations and academicians among others. Some of the past IT persons of the year include Infosys’ NR Narayana Murthy, HCL’s Shiv Nadar, Wipro’s Azim Premji, NIIT’s Rajendra S Pawar, Bharti’s Sunil B Mittal, Genpact’s Pramod Bhasin, Cognizant’s Lakshmi Narayanan and former IT Secretary N Vittal.
By A Correspondent
Holii, a partnership between Future Ventures and Hidesign has announced the appointment of Gilles Moutounet as its Chief Executive Officer. Holii offers a unique range of bags and accessories that combines a distinct Indian design aesthetic with the high production standards of Hidesign.
Mr Moutounet brings with him more than 15 years of global leadership experience in Luxury retail and Consulting. A French national, Mr Moutounet has also held senior executive positions with LVMH Group, Aubade, Altios Consulting and Gitanjali group among others.
Ashni Biyani, Director, Holii said, “We are delighted to have Gilles on board and are sure his know-how of brand development and luxury retailing will prove invaluable in delivering on our objective of celebrating the beauty of the Indian woman and bringing luxury into her everyday life.”
Commenting on his new role, Mr Moutounet said, “Holii brings alive beauty, crafted in contemporary designs and an Indian outlook that you can wear anywhere in the world. The brand has tremendous potential in India and overseas as well. The brand has been growing rapidly since its inception and I am now happy to be part of it to take it to the next level.”
The unique ideology of Holii – creating everyday luxury accessories with Indian emotions has been well received since its inception in 2009. Holii’s product offering includes handbags and wallets, laptop bags, iPad and cell phone cases, small accessories and handbag jewellery. It is this Indo-chic appeal which wins the brand its large fan following.
By A Correspondent
Real estate developer from Chennai, X S Real has appointed Aegis Media’s Vizeum India as its media AOR. Vizeum India will handle X S Real’s media mandate to help them talk to their consumers in as captive a manner as possible.
Having carved a niche for themselves with refreshing home ideas, the three brands of X S Real – xqsit, Vibe and Fairsquare – aim to meet unique requirements of home seekers. The flagship brand xqsit offers luxury thematic bungalow apartments while Vibe focuses on designing mid sized dwellings that are elegant yet vibrant. Fairsquare delivers compact little dreams for the first time home buyers.
S Suresh, Chief Marketing Officer, X S Real said, “This is not one of the best times for our industry and we needed a partner who will understand our business and think on our behalf. With Vizeum, we found their thinking contemporary and their team passionate.”
Commenting on the win, S Yesudas, Managing Director – Indian Subcontinent, Vizeum said, “We are thankful to the X S Real management for considering us worthy to partner them in realising their ambition.” This business, according to Mr Yesudas, will be handled out of Vizeum’s Chennai office.
By A Correspondent
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| Inez Albert |
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| Suprio Guha Thakurta |
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| Neena Dasgupta |
Aidem Ventures has been appointed as the media representative for The Economist online business in India.
Announcing the appointment, Inez Albert, Digital Sales Director – The Economist Group (Asia/Pacific) Ltd. said, “We look forward to strengthening our business presence in India by appointing Aidem Ventures as our representative in India. This partnership, enhanced with Aidem’s business acumen and expertise in the field, will ensure that our commitment of sharing world views and unbiased news reaches out to all stakeholders in the Indian market.”
Speaking on the appointment, Suprio Guha Thakurta, Managing Director, India at The Economist Group said, “We have appointed a strategic sales partner in Aidem and going by their domain expertise (news and digital), we are certain that we can take our online business to new heights in India.”
Neena Dasgupta, Head, Digital & International Business – Aidem Ventures, said, “We are very excited with this mandate to enhance the advertising potential of a credible, global and iconic media brand like The Economist in India. As India continues to integrate strongly with the world economy, an increasing number of Indian companies and brands are looking at expanding their footprint globally, and are seeking robust global media platforms to build their brands to ensure a sustained engagement with the consumers. Aidem, with its extensive experience and track record in the news and digital space, is best equipped to partner with The Economist Online to strengthen their presence in the Indian market.”
It is estimated that the advertising expenditure by Indian entities (like Incredible India) and companies (private and public sector) in the international markets would be around US $ 100 million. With new emergent sectors like medical tourism, software companies, telecommunications, spiritual and wellness tourism, it is anticipated that there will be brisk growth in the years ahead.
Inez Albert
Neena Dasgupta
Suprio Guha Thakurta
By A Correspondent
Moneycontrol.com has announced the launch of its new app exclusively for iPad users. Already the no 1 financial app on iPhone and other smart phone platforms, the new moneycontrol.com iPad app will provide enhanced real-time access to financial markets.
Users can get real time stock quotes, commodity prices, currency rates, Indian and global market indices as well as enjoy in-depth coverage and analysis of financial markets, economy, business and much more. Besides this, users can also access their portfolio and watchlist and watch live streaming of CNBC-TV18 and CNBC Awaaz. Users can also access moneycontrol’s large investor community through moneycontrol’s message board service. The app also includes a whole host of other features like alerts, in-depth information and data on all listed companies, video-on-demand etc.
Commenting on the offering, Joyson Thomas, COO, Web18 said, “As increasing number of users are now consuming content and services through tablets and smartphones, it made sense to tap into this fast growing segment of savvy users, and carve out a dominant position in this space. Launching the moneycontrol app for iPad is part of our endeavor to stay in tune with changing user preferences. Looking at the overwhelming response to the moneycontrol app across all other platforms and the feedback that iPad has received from the market, we are positive that the combination of both will take this product to a new level.”
By A Correspondent
Alt Del (The Delhi Alternative) is conducting a writing workshop, worDomination -make words obey you- on December 3 at the Alliance Francaise, New Delhi from 9 am to 12 pm. The workshop aims to help writers, aspiring, junior, upcoming, jaded, tired, et al.
Elaborating on the workshop, Prathap Suthan, who is the driving force behind Alt Del, said, “I plan to share a few ideas on how to get words listen to people. Or how to get the right words to express. This is not something that will transform people from dull writers to sparkling geniuses in three hours, but this something that will make them figure out, stumble on their own methods and ways of dealing with inspiration.
“I’ll be discussing effective ways that would impact them, and help them come out of the workshop better than ever. Writing is a process, and it’s a lifelong process, but if one is armed with mental tools and guidance systems to impel their talent, they could become more prolific. I believe that words ought to be subservient to writers, and writers need to be the masters of their words. Words cannot be disobedient little things that have a mind of their own. They need to heel, they need to pay obeisance, and they need implicitly listen to their writer. Hence, all the communication that’s gone out on the workshop has been created along the more contemporary theme of ‘domination’. The workshop is called ‘worDomination’- make words obey you.”
The workshop is one of the winter’s many ideas from Alt Del and is open to everyone in the communications industry and not just restricted to advertising professionals.
By A Correspondent
The Global Awards for Brand Excellence were held on the second day of the World Brand Congress 2011 in Mumbai, and Dainik Bhaskar Group won two awards for Brand Excellence in Print and Radio category.
– Newspaper: Brand leadership Award – Dainik Bhaskar
– Radio : Brand Leadership Award- 94.3 MY FM
Additionally,
– Ms Neha Mavani, Manager MarComm at Dainik Bhaskar group, won the Young Achievers of the Year Award.
– Mr Sanjeev Kotnala, Vice President, Dainik Bhaskar group was also felicitated with an award as one of the 25 Top Marketers.
The Global Awards for Brand Excellence, part of the World Brand Congress Awards, are unique for their global recognition and celebration of leading marketers across Asia, who have shown innovative leadership in their fields and taken strides beyond national and regional boundaries as well as product categories. More than 800 professionals from 75 countries participated in this conclave.
The awards had received encouraging recognition with more than 450 entries from 300+ companies in 40 categories. The brands were analyzed for Star Factor, Market Perception, Business Acumen, Financial Results, Employer of Choice, Impact and Innovation. For the Individual category, it was Leadership Skills, Business Ethics, Work-Life Balance, Contribution and Career Graph.
By A Correspondent
Synergy Public Relations has been nominated as the finalist to the Asia Pacific Sabre Awards 2011. Founded in the year 2000 by The Holmes Report, SABRE Awards recognize excellence in public relations programming. Over the past decade, the competition – which separates programmes in North America, the EMEA region and Asia Pacific – has grown to become the largest PR awards competition in the world, attracting more than 3,500 entries from more than 40 countries in 2008. The SABRE Awards mission is to raise the standards of the public relations industry globally by highlighting best practices from around the world and celebrating work that demonstrates the highest levels of creativity, integrity and effectiveness. Synergy Public Relations, a leading public relations company has been nominated as one of the finalist for the Asia Pacific SABRE Awards 2011.