NEW DELHI: Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni submitted her resignation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday, a day before the cabinet reshuffle.

Soni?s resignation comes just four days before the sunset date for analogue cable television in the four metros of Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata. Cable TV delivery in the four metros will mandatorily have to be via digital set-top boxes (STBs) from 1 November.

The Congress party has decided to utilise the servies of Soni in preparing the party for the 2014 general elections. Soni felt privileged to have been asked to work to strengthen the party cadres just over a year before the next general elections.

Soni, who will turn 70 on 13 November, is a member of the Rajya Sabha from Punjab. She became I and B Minister on 22 May 2009, and was tourism minister prior to that from 29 January 2006.

She has served as Indian Youth Congress president during emergency in 1975, and became a member of the Rajya Sabha for the first time in March 1976. She also served as general secretary of the Congress from 1999 to 2006.

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MUMBAI: The second season of World Series Hockey (WSH) organised by Nimbus Sport and IHF will have seven teams as the two teams from Punjab have decided to merge. 

The Chandigarh Comets and Sher-e-Punjab have united into one Punjab team.

The second edition starts in December 2012. The aim of one team from Punjab is so that loyalties in that big hockey market are not divided. There will now be 45 matches as opposed to 59 matches in the first season.

MUMBAI: Big CBS Spark Punjabi, the regional general entertainment channel for the Punjab, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh (PCHP) region, is launching a new reality VJ hunt titled ?Mutiyar Punjab Di?.

The winner of the show will ?walk the talk? by hosting her own show on Big CBS Spark Punjabi.

The show which is scheduled to launch during the festive quarter will reach a very plum audience base, making it an extremely appropriate platform for marketers to ride on, the channel said.

The reality show will spread across the six key markets of the Northern region - Chandigarh, Patiala, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Amritsar and Jammu. The 24 episode-series will last six weeks. It has a matrix with comprises of several activities and interactive games which the contestants will have to go through, and on the basis of the results of the various levels, participants will be shortlisted.

Each city will see its top three contestants, who will then move on to the grand finale to compete for the title of ?Mutiyar Punjab Di?, which will be judged by panel consisting of celebrities and "big-wigs" of social organisations and the business world.