MUMBAI: Arshad Muhammed emerged the victor in Amrita TV‘s Winsmart ‘Junior Genius‘, to be crowned the undisputed Genius amongst Juniors at the Grand Finale held in Trivandrum.

Launched in August, 2008, as a weekend primetime hourly show, ‘Junior Genius‘ was Malayalam television‘s first edutainment talent hunt targeted at 12-14 year olds; which assessed not just their IQ,GK or artistic abilities, but endeavored to analyse the total personality of the child, his physical, mental and intellectual potential.

The show began with 30 contestants; and innovative rounds whisked the genius pool and the cream de la cream rose to the surface, and with eliminations at regular intervals, five finalists made it to the Grand Finale .

In the cerebral race to the finishing line, the one who kept a level head on his shoulders and a sharp set of brains inside it, surged ahead and breasted the tape first, in a contest that measured their Total Personality Quotient and became the litmus test of their Character.

Arshad, the youngest contestant, beat the rest of the field to take home the title and the one lakh rupee cash prize. Lekshmi S.H, a tenth grader was awarded Rs. 75,000 for the second spot, while Deepak.T, bagged the third prize, winning Rs. 50000

Armed to the teeth with facts and figures, the finalists met in a pentagonal clash of brain and nerve as they faced a variety of assessments such as ‘Emotional Intelligence‘, ‘Mental Ability‘, ‘Extempore‘ and ‘Quiz‘

In the Emotional Intelligence Test they were asked to observe a still picture of a human ‘emotion‘ for 30 seconds, and asked to weave a story lasting 90 seconds, that inculcated the emotion, followed by standard questions that measured the Emotional Quotient of the contestants.

The Mental Ability Segment sketched a world famous person through a series of symbols that gave complex clues and broad hints as to the city in which he/she was born, the place they lived in, his/her profession ; piecing together these pointers the contestant had to identify the person .

The third segment, Extempore Round assessed the contestants public speaking abilities and imagination, since he was required to speak extempore on a subject that was given to him on the spot . The final
segment in the three hour show was a multifaceted Quiz Session .The
Finale will be telecast at 7.30 pm on March 1st.

They received their prizes from the Chief Guest, Mr Benoy Viswam, Honorable Minister for Forests, in front of a large appreciative audience who followed every dip and rise of the contestants‘ fortune with eager interest.

MUMBAI: Semi-finals and finals of Accenture Matchplay, the first World Golf Championship event of the year, will be live and exclusive on Ten Sports, the most watched sports channel in the Sub-continent.

The $8.5 million tournament, one of the most unique stops on the tour because of its format, was also the most talked about event this year as Tiger Woods finally made his much anticipated comeback from an eight-month-long layoff following his knee surgery after the US Open.

One of the most well-attended event of all times ? all the top-64 ranked players in the world started the tournament ? the Accenture Matchplay reaches its deciding stages with semi-finals on Saturday, and the 36-hole final on Sunday.

The two rounds will be live on Ten Sports. The semi-finals start 2.30 am IST on Sunday, March 1, followed by the final on Monday, March 2, starting 2.30 am IST.

Woods was knocked out in the second round by South African Tim Clark, while Jeev Milkha Singh, the lone Indian in the fray, lost his opening-round match to European Ryder Cup star Ian Poulter.

MUMBAI: TIMES NOW, the acknowledged leader and trendsetter in news, has vanquished its closest competitors with its coverage of the Interim Budget 2009 yet again as it did during the Union Budget 2008 coverage. TIMES NOW has achieved dominance not only in the English news category but also beaten CNBC in the business news genre.

TIMES NOW, with its viewership share of 24% during the Interim Budget this year, beat CNBC TV18 second year in a row by a 2% margin same as that of last year and other English News channels like NDTV 24*7 and CNN IBN were left lagging behind with 11% and 13% shares. TIMES NOW has doubled its lead over NDTV 24x7 whose viewership fell from 17% last year to a meager 11% during this year‘s Interim Budget Day and a significant 11% lead over CNN IBN thereby setting new benchmarks in dominating big events.

Commenting on the occasion Arnab Goswami, Editor-in-chief, TIMES NOW said, "This year TIMES NOW‘s unparalleled interim budget programming was led by India‘s best known business anchors, with analysis by India‘s most respected economic experts and views from Industry leaders gave viewers a balanced perspective of the Interim Budget. TIMES NOW‘s ability to demystify the intricacies of the interim Budget along with its viewer-friendly graphics makes it the only choice for viewers when it comes to news.

The clear focus on news, the ability to balance expertise with relevance and an unmatched passion for news is the reason for the viewers making TIMES NOW their "only choice".

MUMBAI: India‘s most trusted matrimony portal with over 15 million registered members today announced its partnership with IDEA Cellular, one of the leading mobile operator with over 40 million subscribers, to launch customized matrimony services for mobile users. IDEA subscribers can access Bharatmatrimony?s services on their GPRS enabled handsets, across the country.

Bharatmatrimony.com has customized its services for IDEA Cellular keeping in mind the unique needs of subscribers. A range of services and sections on the website, such as searching for prospective brides and grooms; viewing individual profile, ?Express interest? etc will be available free of cost to IDEA subscribers.

For further browsing and accessing information; writing personalized messages; and sharing contact information with others on the website ? IDEA subscribers can avail exciting subscription plans. For just Rs. 100 per month, subscribers will get to view unlimited profiles and access 5 contacts free of cost. The service can be accessed on IDEA?s WAP portal http://wap.ideafresh.com or at http://idea.bharatmatrimony.com on the mobile internet browser by selecting Idea GPRS option.

Speaking about the initiative, Mr. Pradeep Shrivastava, Chief Marketing Officer, IDEA Cellular said ?IDEA has always been at the forefront of offering the most innovative and exciting ?Internet on Mobile? experience for our subscribers. With the launch of BharatMatrimony.com on the IdeaFresh portal, we are extending our mobile internet footprint into the matrimonial segment, engaging our users with a Mobile-As-Matchmaker experience. By added focus on the regional matrimonial aspect to IDEA?s version of BharatMatrimony, we are confident of making this service relevant and user-centric for a larger section of our users, across the country.?

According to Murugavel Janakiraman, Founder & CEO, Consim InfoPvt Ltd- (Consumer services through internet & mobile)-the parent company which hosts a set of portals from matrimony to property, ?At CONSIM, we are constantly looking to go beyond the Internet and reach out to a wider range of consumers through all possible digital channels. IDEA Cellular?s innovative approach to delivering WAP services provides us a sound platform to serve the rapidly growing mobile users in India?.

?Another interesting feature is that we have integrated this with our web offering, thus allowing both sets of customers to seamlessly interact across mediums?, added Murugavel Janakiraman.

A pioneer and market leader of matrimonial services in both online and offline space, BharatMatrimony is constantly striving to better its services with changing times and technology. Bharatmatrimony.com was the first to launch matrimony services through a SMS portal in 2004.