MUMBAI: Star News pioneered India?s 1st National News Anchor Hunt which provided an opportunity to all prospective journalists to opt for a rewarding career in Television Journalism. The curtains have come down today on India?s biggest search for News Anchors- The Star Anchor Hunt.

Mr. Ashok Venkatramani CEO Star News felt the need of the Star Anchor Hunt to bridge the resource gap of trained manpower in the News Television business. ?Human Capital is the most important resource at Star News which is why we conducted the 1st Talent Hunt by a News Channel to induct fresh talent into the Industry.?

Over three months, Star News and its 3 celebrity Judges traversed the entire Hindi belt, visiting 10 cities. Star News would cull out 250 to 450 Candidates in each City and put them through Group Discussions, Written Tests, Piece to Camera and Jury interactions. After that, we?d put the final twenty candidates into a stringent final round in the Star studios in Noida. The 20 finalists (10 Male and 10 Female) were trained to interview Celebrities, report on an Event, write Headlines and Anchor in the Studio. From there would emerge a couple of candidates that would become the face of Star News. Yes, this wasn?t a regular Talent Hunt on an Entertainment Channel where the winners are patted on their backs, given gift hampers and sent home.

Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav fielded questions ranging from Bihar, the Railways and Films from all the 6 finalists in his trademark style with a lot of humor. He requested the Management of Star News to employ all 6 Finalists as they were all very good and not over awed by him like most Journalists. But since some Winners are more equal than others ,Meenakshi Khandwal and Akshay Shukla were felicitated by the Jury of Tisca Arora and Chetan Bhagat and blessed by Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav. Mr Shazi Zaman, Editor of Star News presented them with a Trophy and a 3 year Contract as an Anchor with Star News. They are also proud owners of a Ford Figo which were on view outside the Hotel.

?India?s biggest search of News Anchors has thrown up India?s 1st two Star Anchors? according to Mr. Neeraj Sanan the Marketing Head of Star News. ?We are delighted by the response to the first Star Anchor Hunt. Opportunity knocks a second time for all those who missed out ? so please register online for Star Anchor Hunt 2011 on www.staranchorhunt.com .?

?I was amazed why no one had thought of this concept before to search for the best anchor/journalist across India? said a member of the Jury,Tisca Chopra. She started her Career as a Star News Anchor and went on to star in the much acclaimed Taare Zameen Par with Aamir Khan- India‘s official entry to the 2008 Academy Awards.? The Star Anchor Hunt was by far the toughest challenge for me?.how do you pick someone from anonymity, groom them, work with them and see them grow and then send them back? It broke my heart to eliminate the very people I had fought to bring to the finals.?

Well read author Chetan Bhagat shared snippets of his journey into the Indian heartland. ?We met the youth of this country from all backgrounds ? rural and urban, rich and poor, moderate to highly educated. However, they had one thing in common ? everyone had a dream, and they were willing to work hard for it. Many candidates lacked anchor-like skills, but quite a few were excellent. In every audition city me and the other judges (Tisca Chopra, Deepak Chaurasia, Siddharth Sharma), had a tough time making the final shortlist. I witnessed the raw talent of my country firsthand, which frankly is India?s only hope in making it to the big league of nations.?

Talent is not a monopoly of the Metros and the Star Anchor Hunt opened its doors to the Hindi heartland. A lot of the participants lauded Star News efforts while acknowledging that they always wanted to be Anchors but didn?t know how. For them Deepak Chourasia, Kishore Ajwani, Aditi Arora, Siddartha Sharma, Srivardhan Trivedietc are role Models as they feel that the Star News Anchors are among the best in the Country.

The Star Anchor Hunt has been captured on Camera in 20 Episodes and can be seen on Star News between 8.30 to 9 pm till 26th June. The Grand Finale would be telecast on 26th June-so please switch on your Televisions and meet the final winners.

MUMBAI: Text 100 Delhi has been appointed by online travel company, Expedia to elevate its profile and reputation as the leading online travel site in India. Expedia plans to leverage Text 100?s reputation as a highly regarded Public Relations agency in India and acknowledged the agency?s local knowledge and media relationships as differentiators in the competitive pitch process.

As part of Expedia?s APAC operations led out of Australia, Expedia.co.in is a portal for the Indian traveler and offers the ability to select and book a wide selection of hotel accommodation, flights and tourist attractions across the world. The online travel company features more than 110,000 hotels, and more than 3,000 holiday activities and attractions from across the world. Expedia.co.in users can read thousands of independent reviews from fellow travelers and use travel-simplifying features such as maps, weather forecasts and 360 degree virtual tours of hotels.

?Expedia selected Text 100 Delhi for its strong reputation and industry experience in the local market?, said Manmeet Ahluwalia, Marketing Manager for Expedia Inc. in India. ?These are key elements as we work towards building our reputation in the highly competitive India marketplace.?

?We are excited to have the opportunity to work with Expedia and to help grow their business in India?, said Rowan Benecke, Regional Consultancy Director, Text 100 APAC. ?Our communications team is looking forward to helping Expedia grow its profile and the awareness of its online travel solutions amongst Indian travelers.?

About Text 100

Text 100 is a global public relations consultancy with a staff of 500 people and a direct presence in 30 cities worldwide. We work with many of the world?s leading technology, internet and digital lifestyle brands with a client roster that includes IBM, Cisco, Fujifilm, Lenovo, SanDisk, Skype and PayPal. We are recognised as an innovator in the field of public relations ? particularly in the emerging area of social media - and for leading the PR industry in staff development. Our strong culture has been praised around the world over the past two years during which time we have been recognised as the Best Midsize Agency in Asia, the Best Midsize Agency to Work For in the US, and one of the UK?s Best Small Companies. For more information about Text 100, please visit www.text100.com

MUMBAI: The Power of Ideas, India?s largest entrepreneurial platform that encourages, nurtures and grooms business ideas by connecting them with relevant mentors, incubators and investors, is being launched by The Economic Times on June 22. The initiative aims at creating an entrepreneurial culture in India Inc.

The Power of Ideas was first launched in 2009, in the middle of an economic slowdown, to boost sentiment and encourage India Inc to approach the slowdown differently. Over 12,500 business ideas were received and of these, 1,000 shortlisted participants were taken through Group Mentoring sessions and Elevator Pitches. A final list of 254 thus arrived at were put through a phase of one-on-one Mentoring prior to presenting their ideas to investors. Till the time of writing, nearly 20 ideas have received funding and several more are in advanced stages of talks with investors. Not only was the programme rigourous in terms of the learning it offered, it also became ? by virtue of the sheer number of business ideas received ? the largest aggregation of outstanding business ideas.

This year, the objective is to formalize the initiative, transforming it into an entrepreneurial ecosystem that will drive the economy forward. For this purpose, The Economic Times has joined hands with the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India. The Department of Science & Technology, with its immense expertise and relationships in the entrepreneurial space, is offering guaranteed funds worth Rs 5 crore. It will be given out to not just for those who have taken the first step, but even to dreamers who come with nothing more than a good idea. It?s our way of saluting innovation.

Working alongside will be the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE), Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad. Started as an incubating lab of IIM Ahmedabad, CIIE is today a domain expert, with experience in mentoring, hand-holding and making entrepreneurs investor-ready. In the last few months, CIIE has been sewing together an ecosystem comprising mentors and investors who will evaluate every single business summary that comes to The Power of Ideas 2010 - mentoring and investing in the most deserving. Just to ensure that more dreamers get to meet investors, CIIE has also worked out a unique ten-day incubation programme at its campus for all candidates who make it to the final cut-off list of The Power of Ideas, all expenses paid.

The programme this year also has the blessing of Infosys Chairman and Chief Mentor N R Narayana Murthy, who, in an interview last month spoke in detail about his own entrepreneurial journey and the relevance of the initiative. He said," I am very excited by the launch of The Power of Ideas. I encourage any initiative that encourages entrepreneurship. I believe entrepreneurship is the only instrument to make this a better country?.

Thus, this unique public-private-academia partnership means there is real money and real expertise powering The Power of Ideas 2010.
 

MUMBAI: STAR Majha which is a 24 hour Marathi News channels from MCCS bouquet was launched on 22nd June 2007. Today it completes 3 successful years of capturing the hearts of Marathi manus. In the pursuit of three relentless years, STAR Majha has exposed truth and fearlessly covered the news. Some examples are fearless stand against the Maharashtra government opposing the subsidy on liquor production, exposing Shiv Sena candidate in election who had noted criminal records, and so on.

After West Bengal, Maharashtra is the most language deep market in Hindi Speaking belt. In Maharashtra, 78% population has Marathi mother tongue and 32% of the news consumptions happens in this language. Launching a Marathi News channel in such lucrative market was a strategic call. In 2007, with the launch of STAR Majha and Zee 24 Taas, first time 9cr Marathi population tasted the news in their own language from a 24hr news channel. From Viewership share of 0.6% to 2.7%, the genre grew exponentially in 3yrs of time. It happened when other news genres like Hindi & English were seeing a tough time in holding viewers.

Since launch, STAR Majha captured the leadership position in the genre. With an avg share of 42%, STAR Majha continued to gain the viewers; so much so that it surpassed the Viewership of national news channels like Aaj Tak, Zee News, NDTV, Times Now etc. Compared with all the news channels in Maharashtra including national Hindi & English, STAR Majha stands at no.1 position with 12% Viewership share. The data reinforces our belief and advocated the power of language and acceptability of news in mother tongue. Some of the leading new bulletins on STAR Majha is 10chya Batmya, Vishesh, Batmya Superfast, Mumbai East West.

Advertisers have also shown trust in the genre. There has been a substantial increase of 41% advertisers on the genre in 2009 vis a vis 2008. Required are exclusive solutions to small / big advertisers who resort to print as primary medium. The fact that number of advertisers on Marathi news is just 3% of total print advertisers (Print- 18307, Marathi News- 548), points to a huge potential to grow by attracting these unattended prospects.
 

MUMBAI: Disney Channel is all set to introduce yet another fun treat for fans on their favorite show Ishaan -- the first musical on Indian Television for Tweens and their families.

Singer Shaan will soon be seen in a special appearance on the show in his newest avatar not as a singer but as an actor who meets lead characters Ishaan, Pulkit, Ron, Mandy and Munmun when they visit a recording studio. The gang runs into Shaan (or so they think!) while trying to get their act together and record a song in 15 mins! Is it really their favorite singer Shaan or Vignesh Bhai (as he claims to be)? Fans can find out for themselves by tuning into ?Ishaan?, every Saturday and Sunday at 10 am, only on Disney Channel.

?One of the key offerings of Ishaan has been the engaging music and endearing characters. It is our aim to delight kids and families through an engaging story and by bringing their favorite personalities on screen as a part of the show? says Arnab Chaudhuri, Director Content and Creative, Walt Disney Television International India.

?Shaan is an extremely popular singer as well as an icon for kids and youth of today. Shaan, kids and music just fit well and we are happy to bring him to Ishaan for Disney Channel fans. Ishaan fans will have more such treats in the future as well? adds Arnab.
 

MUMBAI: The first official broadcast of a FIFA World Cup(tm) match in Swahili has taken place in South Africa, with BBC World Service broadcasting live in Swahili from the Serbia v Ghana match on 13 June.

In this historic first, the commentary team of Charles Hilary and Salim Kikeke commentated live from the Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria to cover the Serbia v Ghana game. The match was broadcast to Africa via the BBC‘s FM partner relays.

As a result of an agreement with FIFA and the African Union of Broadcasters (AUB), the BBC Swahili team will for the first time ever, provide live Swahili commentary on a wide range of games during the tournament, including the semi-finals and finals.

As well as broadcasting in Swahili, BBC World Service will also be running live commentary in English on FM relays across Africa - on each of the qualified African teams‘ games during the tournament as well as the climax of the competition - including the semi-finals and the final.

Working with FIFA and the AUB, BBC World Service‘s team will be joined in the commentary box for the duration of the tournament by three sports journalists from across the continent - Arjun Vidyarthi, a Sports Editor with Radio Africa in Kenya; Malik Jones, a journalist at Gambia Radio and TV Service, and Stanley Katsande, a commentator and analyst on both radio and television for the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation. These three journalists will act as additional commentators and pundits during the tournament.

"This deal embodies FIFA‘s endeavour to make the FIFA World Cup accessible to as many fans as possible in Africa and across various types of media. It truly marks another milestone for this historic tournament and we are thrilled that together with

the AUB and the BBC World Service we could make it happen," said Niclas Ericson, FIFA Director of TV.

"Africa‘s first FIFA World Cup has just marked another milestone -- the first-ever official Swahili radio broadcast of a FIFA World Cup match.

The AUB is pleased to be able to break new ground together with FIFA and the BBC," said Larry Atiase, CEO/General Director of the AUB.

Jerry Timmins, Head of Region for Africa and the Middle East, BBC World Service says:

"For BBC World Service, this live Swahili commentary marks a historic first. I am particularly pleased that sports journalists from African FM stations have been able to join the BBC teams. The first World Cup in Africa