MUMBAI: IBN Network has announced its first ever IBN7 Diamond States Awards, a unique initiative in partnership with Outlook for recognizing human and social development efforts by the states of India. At the function Kerala and Goa bagged 5 awards each including India?s Best Big State and India?s Best Small State awards respectively. Other award winners included Punjab, Gujarat, Delhi, Mizoram, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttaranchal; these awards are first of its kind initiative that shifted the focus from the usual parameters of GDP, FDI, exports, infrastructure etc to human resource and social development. Jaypee Group, the well diversified infrastructural industrial conglomerate is the Presenting Sponsor and Industrial Financial Corporation of India (IFCL) is the associate sponsor.

World renowned violinist Dr. L. Subramaniam along with his illustrious wife Kavita Krishnamurthy gave a perfect start to the event as they enchanted the audience with their performance. Chief Guest of the event Bharat Ratna and former President of India Dr. A. P.J. Abdul Kalam delivered the keynote address on ?The human development imperative: The challenges before India‘s 21st century leaders? which was followed by an interesting interactive session including CMs, leaders and dignitaries conducted by Ashutosh and Rajdeep Sardesai. The event witnessed eminent persons from different walks of life like cabinet ministers, chief ministers, politicians, residents, journalists, poets and Hindi writers.

The winners were felicitated by Chief Guest and Bharat Ratna former President of India Dr. A. P.J. Abdul Kalam

Telecast timings of the Grand Finale on IBN7 are Saturday, 27th September at 8pm; Sunday, 28th September at 2pm and Monday, 29th September at 12noon.

The independent Knowledge Partner, Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) managed the process, methodology and the data for arriving at the best states for the various categories. The Editorial Board along with the jury consisting of eminent citizens like Mr. Bimal Jalan- Former RBI governor, Dr. Amit Mitra- Secretary General, FICCI, Gurcharan Das- Author, Ms. Ila Patnaik ? Senior Fellow (NIPFP), Mr. Prathap Banu Mehta ? President & Chief Executive, Centre for Policy Research, and Dr. Bakul H Dholakia ? Former Director, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad oversaw the selection process and ratified the findings.

At the occasion, Rajdeep Sardesai, Editor-in-Chief, IBN Network said, ?In a time when India as a country is on an economic overdrive, it is very important for every state to contribute to its potential for the next level of growth. The states need to facilitate inclusive development by exploiting their strengths and it is very pleasing that there are states & bodies which are working in this direction. We are very happy to felicitate state governments and functionaries on various aspects of development for the better future of the country.?

Ashutosh, Managing Editor, IBN7 added, ?Indian federal structure is the backbone of our country which makes it very imperative each state work towards the overall growth of the country. We are delighted to give IBN7 Diamond State Awards in partnership with Outlook to the worthy states in the field of Human and social development. We hope this initiative will not only acknowledge the leaders of the states who are doing good work but in turn inspire others to work towards achieving the same.?

MUMBAI: As per the latest TAM (Television Audience Measurement) results, Zee News has once again been acclaimed as the preferred news channel during the most trying time for safety and security of citizens. The result has indicated that during the serial blasts that shook the capital city of Delhi, viewers chose to watch Zee News for all the unfolding updates.

The channel‘s in-depth coverage about the serial blasts garnered maximum eyeballs and the channel emerged as the clear winner. The repeated success on the TAM scoreboard has yet again proved that viewers believe in Zee News for real News.

The channel‘s extensive coverage of the event like confidence vote, pay commission and now fighting terrorism, has established the channel as a credible source of news. Zee News has always believed in delivering newsworthy content, when it comes to news of national interest.

The recently declared TAM results have placed Zee News ahead of other Hindi News channels like Star News, India TV, NDTV India, IBN 7 among others.

Highlighting the success, Barun Das, CEO, Zee News Ltd. said, "We at Zee News have always believed in the power of authenticity and credibility of news. Whether it is news related to the common man or of national interest, we always endeavour to offer content, which is real and newsworthy. We are happy that viewers have appreciated our coverage and have believed in Zee News for the latest updates on issues of national importance. We will make sure that we always live up to the expectations of the viewers and support them in every possible manner."

MUMBAI: This week Techtree brings you a run down on Google‘s all-new operating system-Android that will recently be launched on HTC‘s handset. The phone will run all of Google‘s internet and productivity suites and shall also feature Google‘s operating system- Chrome.

Further on, Techtree brings you the latest business phone from Sony Ericsson- the G900. The G900, with its Wi-Fi support and a 5 megapixel auto focus camera looks set to cause high-tech high-end excitement.

Moving forward, we show you how to secure your home wi-fi connection and how to get more out of your mailboxes with Xobni and Xoopit - plug-ins that let you organize your Outlook and Gmail inboxes.

So, to get your technology fix for the week, tune into the Techtree show this Thursday, 25th September at 10:30 pm only on UTVi!

MUMBAI: CNBC AWAAZ, India‘s No 1 Business channel announced the CNBC AWAAZ Consumer Awards 2007. Leading research organisation ‘The Nielsen Company‘ conducted the research spanning 17 product and service categories across the country in 21 cities and 84 rural centres (with a population of 3000 and above), with about 10,000 respondents covering all strata of society - voicing their opinion about their most preferred brands.

The widespread locations adequately represent the heterogeneous nature of India in terms of geography (zones) and population size (town classes: metros, mini-metros and class I towns).

Consumers today are well - informed of the choices available to them in the market hence brand building has become much more vital and competitive. Brands are evolving everyday and trying different avenues to cater to the changing preference of today‘s consumer. Keeping in mind the current Indian scenario, CNBC AWAAZ has taken the onus to arrive at a list of the "Most preferred Brands" (as perceived by the end-consumer) for each of the product categories covered in this study. Banks, FMCG, Consumer Durables, Telecom, Automobiles are amongst the 17 services and product categories that the research will cover.

Branding is emerging as the new age mantra and a lot of marketers are trying to grab the attention of smaller cities with special offerings. With the objective of providing the marketers a better understanding of the smaller cities, CNBC AWAAZ is focusing on rural areas as marketers have realised the importance of this particular segment.

The objective of the study was:

- To arrive at a list of the "Most Preferred Brands" as perceived by the end- consumer for each of the product categories covered in this study.
- Identifying the chief commodity/ service within each category that is largely used by consumers.
- Identify the drivers that influence the selection for a particular brand in each category
- Determine the performance of the preferred brands on the selected drivers.

The CNBC AWAAZ Consumer Awards 2008 will include an interactive session with the general audience on the consumer perspective pertaining to ‘Brand India‘ to be hosted by the dynamic duo of Anuradha Sen Gupta - editor-anchor of CNBC TV18‘s flagship feature show "Storyboard" & Prasoon Joshi - Guru in the advertising world.

Attending the ceremony would be luminaries such as: Sharad Pawar - Hon. Minister of Consumer Affairs & Public Distribution, Praful Patel - Hon. Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Mr. Vaidyanathan - Executive Director,ICICI Bank, Akshay Kumar - Actor, Mr. Kensaku Konishi - President and CEO Canon India, Mr. Lalit Modi - Chairman and Commissioner of Indian Premier League.

Commenting on the fourth edition of the CNBC AWAAZ Consumer Awards 2008, Mr. Neel Chowdhury, Vice President, Marketing CNBC-TV18 and CNBC AWAAZ said: "This time around CNBC AWAAZ is going to the rural areas as we see a huge potential in this sector, and we shouldn‘t be surprised if we see new players topping the list. Over the years, the awards have certainly come a long way in lending credibility and much needed support to the real estate market, and we are indeed proud to say that we are ‘The Voice of the Indian Consumer‘.

The Indian market is becoming a buyer‘s market where a multitude of brands give the customer the power to choose. Through this study, India‘s No 1 business channel CNBC AWAAZ stands by its proposition of being the ‘Voice of the Indian Consumer‘. This year by getting the rural centres to be a part of the awards, CNBC AWAAZ has brought a new perspective to this award.

To arrive at the results, male and female adults in the age group of 18-45 years, belonging to SEC A, B and C households in the urban areas and SEC R1 and R2 in the rural areas were interviewed through the large-scale quantitative research technique. This has helped us in getting a large enough sample size representing people from almost all walks of life throughout the country.

The CNBC AWAAZ Consumer Awards 2008 ceremony will take place at ITC, Grand Central, Parel, Mumbai, on September 26, 2008.