MUMBAI: ? Lenovo, the dwide Partner of the Olympic Torch Relay, launched the second phase of its global philanthropic auction in India. The site will be closed for auctioning at midnight of 23 May, 2008

The product for auction is the Lenovo 3000 V200 notebook with the special Olympic torch-themed cover and signed by Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan.

The auction will be conducted on Lenovo?s own site www.lenovohopefundauctions.com. Theme for the Olympic auction is the ?cloud of promise?. The first phase of the auction was held in February this year and it recorded over a dozen bids and over 1000 page views. The first notebook, Lenovo 3000 V200 was auctioned at $825.99.

Globally, besides India, the auction is being conducted in Japan, Australia, UK, France, Russia, USA, Hong Kong, Argentina, China, Brazil and Canada. 34 limited edition Lenovo notebook PCs are being auctioned around the world. In the final week of the Beijing 2008 Olympic games, one notebook PC (Personal Computer) from each country participating in the auction will be auctioned to conclude the course.

Lenovo, SVP and CMO Deepak Advani said, "We are thrilled to offer fans the unique opportunity to own these one-of-a-kind Olympic torch themed notebook PCs. Just as our technology helps bridge the physical gaps among different parts of the world, Lenovo‘s goal is to do the same through social investments. In the Olympic spirit of internationalism and cooperation, it is fitting that these Olympic torch-themed notebook PCs should benefit worthy causes."

The third and final phase of auction in India will begin on July 29th, 2008.

MUMBAI: Leading Indian News channels CNBC-TV18 has partnered with the ‘Sunfeast WORLD 10 K‘ race, which will be held in Bangalore. The WORLD 10K race is a yearly event, which has been organized in different parts of the world and for the first time, is being organized in India. The ‘Sunfeast WORLD 10K‘ is also the richest race, with total prize money of 150,000 USD.

The ‘Sunfeast WORLD 10 K‘ will be a unifying experience which will have more than 15000 enthusiastic runners, including international and national elite athletes participating. CNBC TV18 will bring the event live to millions of Indians on May 18, 2008 from 7 am onwards, along with a power packed line up of programming built around the event.
CNBC-TV18 will cover the tremendous diversity of the WORLD 10K experience, ranging from professional participation to support of charity causes and corporate social endeavors to celebrity involvement, from individual recreation to community building.
On the race day, the channels will embed reporters and anchors through the race. This will ensure a power packed, razor sharp viewing experience. The channels will also showcase extensive graphical features such as leader boards, timers, chopper shots, trivia along with commentary from expert commentators.

Speaking on Network 18‘s partnership with this race, Ajay Chacko, Director, TV18 Business Media said, "The Sunfeast WORLD 10 K epitomizes the spirit of Bangalore and celebrates the city‘s emergence as the leading global symbol of India. Editorially, we constantly aim to deliver value added content to our viewers along with a special programming emphasis on properties that highlight the rapidly transforming economic scenario in the south. After our highly successful Mumbai marathon coverage, we believe that the 10 k race will be another significant programming milestone"

Mr. Anil Singh of Procam International, promoters of the event said "We are very proud and excited to be associated with Network18 for the Sunfeast 10 K. We believe that the race will take a quantum leap with coverage from the market leading channel of the group, CNBC-TV18, delivering maximized reach and audiences for the Sunfeast WORLD 10 K Race, Bangalore. The Race culture is rapidly spreading across India, symbolic of the nation‘s passion for health, competition and leadership and CNBC-TV18 will be an ideal partner in spreading this cult"

The ‘Sunfeast WORLD 10K‘ will be held in 6 different categories which include the World 10K (distance: 10 km), Nation‘s Challenge (distance: 10 km), Open 10K (distance: 10 km), Majja Run (distance: 5.7 km), Sr. Citizens‘ Run (distance: 4 km) and the Wheelchair Event (distance: 4 km) for the physically challenged. The Race will commence from Kasturba Road, outside Kanteerva Stadium and end inside the Athletic Stadium.

The city of Bangalore has responded by enthusiastically swamping all the race categories on offer. So all you athlete‘s in the country, on your mark, get set to watch the 1st edition of Sunfeast ‘WORLD10K‘ in Bangalore on CNBC TV 18 only.

MUMBAI: In a mere five months, ZoomTV.in - digital arm of Zoom television - has already clocked a staggering 23 million views.

With a bevy of official partners including YouTube, Rediff, Blinkx, Nautanki and over 23 of the most popular Bollywood applications on social networking giant Facebook, Zoom is proud to be India‘s largest video content platform on the Web.

Advocating Zoom‘s video network as a platform, as opposed to a traditional portal, M K Anand, Business Head, Zoom, said, "Currently, traditional media - and TV channels specifically - function as a walled garden on the Web, and are predominantly text-heavy. We are a television company and video is our competitive advantage. It makes sense for us to use our video content as our platform. Zoom‘s video network across top aggregators delivers more audiences than the biggest Web video providers around. Most importantly, this is not limited to video on a Website; our video is the network."

Sameer Pitalwalla, Head, Digital, Zoom, added, "We structured our deals from the ground up, keeping in mind how video consumption was going to evolve. Our network reflects the fact that the value of content is in people watching it, regardless of the platform. With over 5.8 million views per month across our official partners, we have brought to fruition our strategy of building the largest Web video network base from this part of the globe. We will commence the roll-out of our inventory within the month."

ZoomTV.in emerged as YouTube India‘s ‘Number One Most Viewed (All Time)‘ video content provider across all categories. "Zoom was our first YouTube partner in India," said Gautam Anand, Google‘s Head of content partnerships for Asia Pacific and Latin America. "Since then, their Channel has been consistently popular with our community and we are happy that our relationship with them continues to provide our users with unique, entertaining and informative content."

ZoomTV.in is also the most-watched content provider on Rediff.com‘s popular video platform iShare. It is, at present, the largest aggregator of Indian audiences on the video portal, and a consistent traffic builder for iShare. "Zoom was the first channel to take the lead in this initiative and we are glad to have a progressive partner like it on Rediff iShare. It has the right content mix, which works brilliantly both for consumers and the web-video format," said Jasmeet Singh Gandhi, VP, Product Marketing, Rediff.com India Limited.

Then there‘s a tie-up between ZoomTV.in and Nautanki.tv Networks, an online entertainment platform that provides Web page owners with a mix of branded and niche content. "Zoom‘s content will increase the depth of choice available to the Nautanki.tv viewer. The interesting mix of entertainment-based content that Zoom offers will increase video consumption and bring in greater engagement to brands that want to advertise on the content," said Sunil R Nair, CEO, Nautanki.tv.

Partnering with US-based Blinkx.com, Zoom will power Bollywood content on the video search engine major. "Bollywood being as massively popular as it is, we are thrilled to partner with Zoom," said Suranga Chandratillake, founder and CEO, blinkx. "Our users will now have easy access to more Bollywood content than ever before."

With a solid delivery platform and captive audience in place, Zoom is set to initiate advertising across its video content, offering advertisers over 5.8 million views per month.

MUMBAI: The champions of Clinic All Clear Jo Jeeta Wohi Superstar bring the judges Farah Khan, Vishal & Shekhar, anchor Mandira Bedi and the audience to splits with their crazy and hilarious performances in the Comedy Special episode of the series. Entertaining the crowd with their histrionics, the contestants open the episode with a performance on the title song of ?Partner? that even gets Mandira to do a jig along with them on the hit dance number.

Funnyman Ehsaan Qureshi joins the fun and frolic and entertains everyone with his stand up act taking a dig at each of the contestants, Mandira and the jury. His hilarious spoofs and comments had all in splits.

In between his comic acts, the champions gave even stellar perfomances. After an emotional outburst last week, Debojeet Saha brought tears of hysteria this time with his entertaining male and female performance on the song ?Terchi Nazariya? while Abhijeet Sawant left everyone asking for more of his hilarious performance on the song ?Bindu re Bindu?.

Not to be left far behind, Vineet Singh satires on his erstwhile competitor, Debojeet with the song ?Chachunder ke sar pe?. He closes his performance with a Himesh Reshammiya version of the song ?Jodha Akbar?

Watch the champions entertain everyone with their funny acts in the comedy special episode of Clinic All Clear Jo Jeeta Wohi Superstar, Saturday, May 17, 2008 at 10 pm only on Star Plus.

MUMBAI: Sulekha.com, the most popular online community for Indians worldwide, has launched the "Sulekha Book Series", a part of the year round Blogprint initiative, which sees the creative works of Sulekha blogger‘s appear in print. The Sulekha Book Series is Sulekha.com‘s own publication series to encourage quality blogging by publishing works of their bloggers in two parts. It will feature both publications of an individual blogger and collective works of multiple blogger‘s. This is a tribute to the thousands of blogger‘s who come together on Sulekha.com everyday and share their diverse creative talents.

Speaking about the launch of this unique initiative, Mr. Satya Prabhakar, CEO, Sulekha.com, said, "After the phenomenal success that we had with our BLOGPRINT initiative, we at Sulekha.com thought of publishing our own series of books, featuring some of our most prolific writers, who have been our support system. The idea is to encourage more creative writers and provide them a platform to showcase their works. Books of this genre are a good pick for casual reading and would encourage more and more people to take up reading as a hobby, which is on the wane, at present".

The first book in the series is Subbu Chronicles - A Series of Adventures by Mumbai-based B.S. Keshav. The book chronicles the adventures of Rajeev Subramanyam, a journalist in the ‘City of Dreams‘, Mumbai. The story has various characters, who add flavor and life to the adventures of Rajeev Subramanyam. The book is light-hearted and captures the true spirit of Mumbai from the mafia to the wardrobe malfunction, each of which Subbu has a take on. The story seamlessly integrates the aspirations and dreams of the common man with the desire to aspire and achieve more.

According to Mr. B.S. Keshav, author, Subbu Chronicles, ""Sulekha.com‘s effort to encourage and acknowledge our work is highly commendable. It has always been an ideal platform for bloggers to explore and expand their ideas. This new initiative by Sulekha.com provides yet another exciting dimension to reach out to larger audience."

Chosen form a wide variety of popular blogs, these books would be available for sale on Sulekha.com and India Plaza. In the next few months, Sulekha.com will publish Coffee Books, Books dedicated to Travel, Humor, Food, Poetry and a whole lot more. With this unique initiative, Sulekha.com aims to create a trend, where blogs would be looked upon as best sellers in due course of time.

MUMBAI: The man Time Magazine hailed as a ?master entertainer?, a literary force who has continued to defy his critics and delight his fans for over 30 years, a story teller, a politician, and an orator, none other than internationally acclaimed author and playwright Lord Jeffrey Archer visits India for the first time!

Landmark presents Landmark Jeffrey Archer Tour, presented by Deutsche Bank with hospitality partner in Delhi, The Oberoi Group. Jeffrey Archer fans will be able to catch the author LIVE and exclusive at Landmark stores across Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune and Chennai.

Since its launch in 1987, Landmark, India?s leading book and music store has delighted its customers by hosting the best of book, music and children?s events and this year is one amongst the many! Commenting on Lord Jeffrey Archer?s visit to India, Himanshu Chakrawarti, COO, Landmark said, ?Sir Jeffrey Archer is the most popular & largest selling author in India and we are proud to present the ?Landmark Jeffrey Archer Tour?. It is truly an honour for us that Lord Jeffrey Archer?s first visit to India for his new novel ?A Prisoner of Birth? will be launched at our stores across various cities.?

The Landmark Jeffrey Archer Tour begins May 17th and will go on to May 24th, where Lord Jeffrey Archer will be visiting New Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Chennai for his new work of fiction ?A PRISONER OF BIRTH?. The latest of his 14 books ?A Prisoner of Birth?, another prison caper rose to No. 1 in the charts in just 3 days. It is a story about a man who is wrongly accused for the murder of his best friend and is sent to a high-security prison - Belmarsh in south-east London.

It?s not just about a store selling books. Landmark is truly about building a generation of well-informed people. The store has presented customers by hosting the best of book, music and children?s events with eminent writers like Anita Desai and Ram Guha, well known actor Aamir Khan, legendary music directors A.R Rehman and Gulzar, popular Sufi singer Kailash Kher and quite recently Ghazal maestros Bhupinder and Mitali Singh among others. Landmark has also been at the forefront at holding events that present children their favourite characters Chamki from the show Gali Gali Sim Sim and Rob from Pogo TV.

So what are you waiting for, catch your favourite author at your favourite Landmark store.