Ten leading filmmakers including Dibakar Bannerjee and Anand Patwardhan have returned their National Awards. Questioning the government’s commitment to protect freedom of expression, they also expressed solidarity with Film and Television Institute of India students who ended their strike earlier. » Narendra Modi has made it to the list of the world’s most admired personalities. A World Economic Forum survey revealed that he ranked 10 globally. Nelson Mandela topped the list while Mahatma Gandhi featured on 4th position. » Answering rather vaguely when asked about net neutrality, Mark Zuckerberg at IIT Delhi emphasized that Internet.org and Facebook fully supported the issue. He went on to say that those pushing for net neutrality already have access to the internet adding that “We all have a moral responsibility to look out for those who don’t have access.”
Month: October 2015
BBC ‘Talking Business’
BBC World News’ flagship show ‘Talking Business’ will launch an India special episode. To be broadcasted on 30th October at 8pm, the show will be broadcast from Mumbai’s Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies. Business presenter Yogita Limaye will be joined by students of the college and a panel to discuss India’s skill gap. » Times Network’s real estate and property channel ‘MagicBricks Now’ has been officially launched and will begin beaming from November 1. Initially slated to be called Property Now, the re-christened channel will offer a rich array of programs ranging from news bulletins to property hotlines, debates, leadership insights and more.
Brand Hub For Advertisers
Twitter has unveiled a new set of brand-centric analytics with ‘Brand Hub’. The new tool will help advertisers understand their brand’s share of conversation, key audiences, and trends about their brand’s conversation. The tool will showcase insights on a number of key areas like True Voice, Audience and Conversation Details. » Facebook announces its latest initiative ‘2G Tuesday’s’ for its developers. Intentionally reducing their internet speed to 2G, the optional feature will be available to the employees to simulate the conditions of users with 2G connections, helping develop technologies to enhance user experience on slow speeds. » Facebook messenger is also killing off its dysfunctional ‘Other Inbox’, replacing it with ‘Message Requests’ which are essentially friend requests for chat allowing non-friends to message you. Calling it a ‘fundamental development’, Facebook believes it will change the way people use Messenger.
#MediaMoves
NDTV Convergence welcomes its new Chief Sub-Editor, Roydon Cerejo. With Technology as his forte, he has earlier worked with Network 18, Techtree.com and Asus. Mumbai based Roydon can be reached @r0yds. » Congrats to Ajeet Bharti for joining NewsGram, an online news portal as Deputy Editor. He was previously associated with The Times of India, The Economic Times, and IANS Publishing. Delhi based Ajeet blogs at ‘the naked mind’ and can be connected @ajeetbharti.
India Steps Up!
India moves up 12 places in World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business report. The implementation of the ‘elimination of minimum paid-in capital’ and a ‘certificate to commence business operations’ caused the jump from last year’s 142nd spot to 130. Considering India’s mammoth economy, World Bank’s Chief Economist & Senior VP Kaushik Basu called it a ‘remarkable achievement’. » Facebook’s Townhall meeting is set to take place at IIT Delhi today. To be hosted by CEO Mark Zuckerberg himself, 900 students are expected to attend the Q&A session. Posting about the event earlier this month on his page Zuckerberg said, “More than 130 million people use Facebook in India. I’m looking forward to hearing directly from one of our most active and engaged communities.” » Telcos have a new move up their sleeve in their petition against TRAI to roll back its “coercive and grossly unjust” order of paying penalties for call drops. Top operators Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and Reliance have grouped up claiming that “to recover this cost of compensation, telecom operators will have to increase tariffs, leading to customers spending more to purchase telecom services.”
CNBC Cashing In On Trump
CNBC seems to have struck gold with the Republican Presidential debate. Advertisers are fighting over 30 sec slots on the already sold out program, “Your Money, Your Vote”, and are ready to pay upwards of $250,000 to secure their place. This means 5 times more money than usual for CNBC and can probably be attributed to Donald Trump’s presence. » Radio Mirchi gets a Punjabi tadka, with a new online radio channel in its kitty – Yo Punjabi. Popular singer, Mika Singh was roped in for the station’s exclusive launch on Gaana.com. Radio Mirchi now houses 12 online stations from different music genres. » ‘HRX Heroes with Hrithik Roshan’, a new nine-episode series celebrating the triumphant human spirit, is all set to premiere on Discovery Channel on November 2nd. The show, to be hosted by Hrithik, will feature 9 real-life heroes including dancer, Sudha Chandran and wrestler, Sangram Singh.
Author 1 : Authority 0
Denied visa could not stop Pakistani author Kanza Javed from launching her book ‘Ashes, Wine and Dust’ in India. The author, due to attend the Kumaon Lit Fest for the launch of her book, coordinated with her publisher Aanchal Malhotra for a last-minute launch over Skype, after her visa request was rejected. » Taking a page out of Apple’s marketing book, Microsoft has launched a page for MacBook users that will facilitate a smooth migration to its recently launched laptop, the Surface Book. Microsoft has created quite a buzz with claims that its laptop is two times faster than Apple’s – a strategy Apple has been using for years. » Can Public Relations salvage broken trust? Taking an instance from the Maggi case study, PR news site- ‘Image Management’ gives an interesting take on how efficient PR can offer solutions in times of crisis.
#MediaMoves
Congrats to Ayushee Syal for joining The Quint as Fashion and Lifestyle Correspondent. Her previous workplaces were India Today and The Times of India. Mumbai based fashion and travel aficionado can be contacted @AyusheeSyal. » Vishal Manve joins Catch News as Correspondent covering foreign policy and business sector. Having had stints with Scroll Media, Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations, a foreign policy think tank in Mumbai, and DNA, Mumbaikar Manve can be reached @VishalManve12.
Banish The Ban
“The age of bans is over” said Arun Jaitley, while delivering the Sardar Patel lecture organized by AIR. “Electronic media has changed the definition of news, it has given citizens a voice and is a tool for good governance”, he said. Jaitley however added that it was an unregulated medium with a large amount of false, defamatory information which could even damage the social fabric of society. » John Whittingdale, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, recently spoke at length on “legitimate concerns” about BBC dominating the web news market. Asserting that “BBC should stop newspaper-style content” on their website, he warned that the Government was considering reopening the terms of a deal that would see the license fee begin to rise by ‘inflation.’ James Purnell, BBC’s Digital and Strategy Director, replied by saying “We don’t think BBC caused the problems, but we would like to be part of the solution.” » Russian President Vladimir Putin’s response to BBC correspondent John Simpson has gone viral. Asked about addressing the fears in the west about the possibility of another Cold War, Putin provided an elaborate response asking if the correspondent had “any common sense at all”. » Good news for all instant noodle lovers! Nestle Maggi, after clearing the court-directed safety tests has resumed production in Nanjangud in Karnataka, Moga in Punjab and Bicholim in Goa with an aim to relaunch by the end of the year.
#DemDebate – Twitter CBS Combo
The bird’s going to flutter around the podium this time. Twitter is partnering with CBS News to cover the second Democratic presidential debate starting November 14th. CBS News will integrate real-time data and insights, as well as live viewer reactions from the official hashtag #DemDebate on Twitter, into its live coverage. » Bloomberg Media to rollout three new ad-tech tools in the EMEA markets. With plans to further monetize trending news stories as well as traffic from social media, Bloomberg is upping the ante on audience insights for advertisers with B:Match, Social Connect 2.0 and Trendr. » The lights went off in City Room, New York Times’ long running blog for metro news. Citing boring-journalism-business reasons for shutdown, the announcement came in a City Room post on Monday.
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