MUMBAI: Defending Scottish Premier League champions Celtic will hope to continue their good form into the New Year, while their biggest rivals Rangers will look to come out of the season-ending loss to Celtic when the two biggest Scottish football teams start 2009 live and exclusive on Ten Sports, the most watched sports channel in the Sub-continent.

Celtic are leading the table once again, having secured 50 points from their 20 matches, while Rangers are seven behind at 43 from the same number of matches.

On Saturday, January 3, Celtic will be at home to Dundee United, while Rangers will be travelling to Inverness CT on Sunday, January 4. The Celtic-Dundee match on Ten Sports starts 7:00 pm IST, while the Inverness-Rangers tie starts 4:30 pm IST.

Dundee United are currently placed third in the table with 34 points, while Inverness are fighting relegation with just 17 points from 20 matches which places them 11th in the 12-team Scottish Premier League.

Rangers will be depending on their dangerous scoring duo of Kris Boyd and Kenny Miller, who have scored 23 (Boyd 16 and Miller 7) of the 45 Rangers goals this season. But they will also be hoping that Dundee can cause a massive upset against Celtic. A win for them, and Dundee, will close the gap to just four points against Celtic.

Rangers believe they can still beat Celtic, even if that meant winning all their remaining matches and forward Lee McCulloch echoed that view when he said: ?I don?t think it?s impossible for us to claw it back. Celtic did it to us last season.

?We won?t stop fighting. We need everybody pulling together. We will be back on the training ground working hard for it and believing we can get the points back and hopefully win the title. We need big characters, but there are a lot of personalities in that dressing-room.?

But Celtic would surely not take it easy despite the big celebration at the end of the year when a Scott McDonald goal helped them beat arch rivals Rangers 1-0.

MUMBAI: Bring in the New Year with unlimited fun, masti, hungama as Channel [ V ] ?home delivers? an unforgettable New Year Bash; Channel [ V ] One Nite Stand.ready to groove to 36 hours of non-stop unadulterated music and super-hit videos between 1100hrs on 31st December, 2008 to 2300hrs on 1st January 2009. Channel [ V ] will turn up the heat further, presenting to you a special playlist by none other than DJ Suketu ? On the slot between 2200hrs (31st December) - 0100 hours (1st Jan) there will an exhilarating 3 hours of non-stop superhit music selected by him!

The party will groove to foot-tapping Bollywood numbers from Bachana Ae Haseeno to Singh is King? and the viewers will get it all! So this New Years hang out you?re your friends at the best place in the world ? your home and get foot tapping music Home Delivered; courtesy Channel [ V ]!

So tune in to all the action and dhamaal and bring in 2009 with Channel [ V ] One Nite Stand!

MUMBAI: A fighter, a style icon, a doting father, romantic at heart and a die hard optimist? He is cool, he is suave. He is one of Bollywood‘s successful actor and Chote Nawab Saif Ali Khan.

Son of two famous public figure, father cricketer Mansoor Ali Khan and mom actress Sharmila Tagore, as a child Saif was always a bit of a star. During his early years in Bollywood, he was often known for being a spoiled brat. This unpleasant personality overshadowed his acting talent. Soon he realised his mistakes and started afresh with his first movie "Aashiq Aanwara" which bagged him a huge success and was awarded the best New Comer award.

His other success includes Yeh Dillagi, Main Khiladi Tu Anari and national international hits like Hum Saath Saath Hain, Kache Dhaage, Dil Chahta Hai and Kal Ho Na Ho. His outstanding performance got him the Filmfare Best Comedian Award, Best actor award in National Film Awards and Best Supporting Actor Award.

Friday‘s episode of Bollywood Biographies features all about Saif, right from his career success, highs and lows, his marriage to Amrita who is 12yrs his senior, his divorce, his love affair with Roza, his spontaneity in his performance as an actor and lots more?

So tune in to Bollywood Biographies to know more about Saif Ali Khan this Friday, January 02 2009, 8.30pm only on ZoOm.

New Year countdown rocks, with Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM, its Hot!

To bid farewell to the Year 2007, Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM, India?s hottest Radio station is on a mission to maximise the celebration for its listeners. Continuing with the spirit of presenting interesting and innovative programming in the past, Radio Mirchi has lined up excitement activities to bid goodbye to2008.

Beginning early this December, Radio Mirchi 98.3FM had undertaken activities that pumped in more excitement and made the year end more rocking for the Delhiites. Aimed at catering to the expectations of its listeners across all age groups, Radio Mirchi 98.3FM has associated itself with a bunch of engaging and entertaining on ground activities such as college and theatre festivals, Christmas and New Year special carnivals etc.

Besides it?s unique on?air programming, the brand associations was another attempt to entertain listeners through various avenues. The list includes initiatives such as the Ghajini promotion that gave an opportunity to the listeners to meet and greet Aamir Khan in person, association with college festivals such as VIBGYOR 2008 (college fest of International School of Business and Media), BLITZKRIEG 2008 (ICFAI Business School), COBWEB 2008 (college fest of LHMC) and SPANDAN 2008 (college fest of Vivekananda College), theatre festivals at India Habitat Centre, India International Women‘s Film Festival, Public Art Festival and many more.

Radio Mirchi 98.3FM has also made an effort for an elongated Christmas celebrations as the station was in an alliance with the Sunshine Kids Carnival where kids enjoyed the carnival with their parents. Mirchi Bana Santa, personalised gift service by the station was another initiative by the station to spread love and happiness on the occasion.

To make New Year an unforgettable experience, Radio Mirchi 98.3FM has launched its Mirchidaar ?Happy New Ear? campaign wherein the station is providing its listeners a chance to win exciting goodies that will be related to everything about ?ear?.

Expressing his views on the tie-ups, Srinivasa Shenoy, Cluster Head, Radio Mirchi said, ?Year End is one time where everybody gets into the celebration mood and we at Radio Mirchi decided to provide our listeners an elongated festive season. The multiple initiatives are conceptualised to bid adieu to 2007 and welcome 2009 in the true Mirchidaar style.?

Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM has been creating a lot of buzz in Delhi with its pioneering initiatives and has received an over whelming response from all its listeners and the advertisers.

MUMBAI: They have been together through many hardships in life and career. Together they have stood the test of time and have proved to the world that they are Bollywood golden couple - Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar.

Inside Bollywood with Rohit Roy this Wednesday features all about Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar. Right from Shabana Azmi‘s first brush in acting at the age of 3, where she was part of her school play, a nursery rhyme ‘Hey lily little feedle the cow, the cow jumped over the moon‘. She always wanted to be an actor; during college she along with Farook Shaik started the first Hindi Theater Group in St. Xaviers College and won an award at the inter college competition. Her parents have always been very supportive, and backed her decision to pursue a course in acting from FTII, Pune. Soon after, she joined the industry and earned praises and awards including five wins of National Film Award for Best Actress for her performances in films in variety of genres. She is known today as super woman as she juggles between her acting and political career.

Shabana‘s husband Javed Akhtar, one of the most terrific writer, poet, and lyricist comes from a family of poets and writers. He joins Shabana in the show where he shares about his humble beginning as a writer. His family, career success, life, marriage and lots more?

So tune in to Inside Bollywood with host Rohit Roy to know more about Bollywood‘s golden couple Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar this Wednesday, December 31, 8pm only on ZoOm.

MUMBAI: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has announced that:
Total 10.18 million telephone connections (Wireline and Wireless) have been added during November 2008 as compared to 10.29 million connections added in October 2008. The total number of telephone connections reaches 374.13 million at the end of November 2008 as compared to 363.95 million in October 2008. With this growth, the overall tele-density has reached 32.34% at the end of November 2008 as against 31.50% in October 2008.

The total wireless subscribers (GSM, CDMA & WLL(F)) base stood at 336.08 million at the end of November 2008. A total of 10.35 million wireless subscribers have been added during the month of November 2008 as against 10.42 million wireless subscribers added during the month of October 2008. Circle-wise wireless subscriber base of service providers is given at Annexure-I.

In the wireline segment, the subscriber base has decreased to 38.05 million in the month of November 2008 as against 38.22 million subscribers in October 2008 registering a drop of 0.17 million. Circle-wise wireline subscriber base of service providers is given at Annexure-II.

Comparison table of subscriber base during corresponding periods of 2007 and 2008 is shown below:
(Subscribers in Million)

* The data is tentative.

Broadband (? 256 Kbps download) Growth: Total Broadband subscribers base has reached 5.28 million by the end of November 2008 as compared to 5.05 million by the end of October 2008.

Comparison table of broadband subscriber?s growth during corresponding periods of 2007 and 2008 is shown below:

(Subscribers in Million)

* The data is tentative.