MUMBAI: The Don came; conquered the hearts of the Pretty Women, at the Party last night...Mumbai witnessed one of the most mesmerising evening at the Airtel Bindass India Concert presented by Bindass, a UTV venture.As Shah Rukh Khan led the ensemble of stars that included Priyanka Chopra, Dia Mirza, Rakhi Sawant, Dino Morea and others who set the stage on fire as they performed live on Sunday 13 January, 2008 at MMRD Grounds Bandra. And for those of you who missed the live concert don‘t lose heart; you can watch the concert on Bindass on Republic Day 26 January at 8 pm.

The concert organised by Cineyug, to celebrate the spirit of young India was hosted by the whacky Sajd Khan, was a two-hour extravaganza with some live wire performances. Shahrukh Khan performed on title number of ‘Mein Hoon Don‘ along with ‘Aankhon Mein Teri‘ from his latest hit OSO. Priyanka Chopra burnt the dance floor with her mind blowing performance on Aaj ki Raat from the film Don while Dia Mirza dazzled on ‘Where‘s the Party Tonight?‘ from the film ‘Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna‘. Rakhi Sawant burnt the Beedi from Omkara with her scintillating performance. Dino Morea danced to foot tapping Bollywood chartbusters while Kunal Ganjawala hummed on some soul stirring numbers. All the dances where choreographed by Ganesh Hedge.

Bindass ran a nation wide unique contest called the ‘Dance with SRK Contest‘ where the channel gave the selected lucky winners once in a lifetime opportunity to dance with King Khan at the concert. 3 lucky winners were chosen through a lucky dip. Nine yr old Mumbai kid Viddhi says, "I can‘t believe that I was invited for the concert and danced with Shahrukh Khan...it yet has to seep in....adds 20 year old Kolkata boy Ankur, ‘Dreams meet reality through the Bindass India concert and super excited.‘ Delhi gal Richa exclaims ‘I was dead nervous was not sure what was happening to me.... had to pinch myself to wake me up.‘

Media partners for the concert included Indiatimes.com and Prill as associate sponsor; radio partner is Radio 93.5 fm along with Caf? Coffee Day as ground partner.

MUMBAI: TIMES NOW, India‘s No 1 English News Television Channel brings to you a special preview of the forthcoming episode of Lead India, an initiative of The Times of India to identify new leaders for a new India.

TIMES NOW, the news partner for the Lead India campaign, will run the preview during the News bulletins on Friday and Saturday so that viewers can get an exclusive first-hand peek of all the thrills even before the episode airs on Star One on 12 January 08.

This episode will see two special guests - Ad Man and ‘mile sur mera tumhara‘ lyricist Piyush Pandey and Shashi Tharoor, former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and author of 9 award-winning books. He has flown all the way from New York to downtown Mumbai, just to be a part of this show!

The theme of this episode is Mission Samadhaan. Each of the contestants will be given a task on current social issues that has never before been solved by any MP, MLA or politician. Watch them battle with each other in the race to the top.

Don‘t miss this episode as it‘s the first in the series to see the elimination of the two candidates. Eventually 5 contestants compete in this episode to become the National Leader.

Catch all the excitement as we watch the future of young India. Stay hooked to TIMES NOW.

MUMBAI: The countdown to the finals of SaharaOne television?s musical reality show JJHOOM INDIA has started.This 12 January, viewers will get to watch the final singing performances between Jodi No 5 Sachin ? Madhushree and Jodi no 2. Varun ? Akriti. Basis on this final battle the first actor singer jodi will be declared the Jjhoom India champion jodi of season one to be announced on the grand finale episode to be aired on 18 January.

Jjhoom India provided platform to television artistes who thought they couldn?t be actors and singers at the same time. Viewers were treated to stage performances by 10 dynamic jodis of popular television actors paired with professional playback singers where they got along in the hope to make some beautiful music together. It was all through a mesmerizing journey for all the 10 jodis who competed in the show and tried their best to make it to the top. But jodi no.5 Sachin - Madhushree and Jodi no.2 Varun ?Akriti finally made it to the finals. Both these jodis have been the most commendable and appreciated by one and all. It isn?t just hard work; there is lot of time, energy, patience, perseverance and determination that drove them to be among the best two ? the finalists of Jjhoom India.

Having reached the grand finale, Sachin believes that the key aspect to remember now is stay relaxed and be more focused. ?I always got good points. Just once I didn?t receive great remarks and I was voted out. But what happened at that juncture only helped me come out of the competition sphere. The fear of losing went away. From the time I am back, I have sung all my songs in a relaxed manner because I am no more scared of consequences. I am in fact giving my throat ample rest so that I don?t over exert. Having reached the top two, Madhuji ? my mentor and I are only concerned about jury and audience liking our song selection.?

On the other hand Varun Badola always thought he knew a lot about music until he participated in Jjhoom India to realize that how much ever one learns music is less. ?I haven?t had formal training in music but have learnt listening to Lataji, Ashaji, Kishori Amonkar and several such veterans. The last two months have been extremely enriching due to the musical knowledge acquired. The credit for my success this far is because of Akriti ? my mentor, Ananth Vaidyanathan ? Vocal trainer and Rajeshwari ? my wife and my best critic" Varun too agrees on the song selection part, saying, ?The confidence to attempt a particular song comes only with practice. I love the song Naina Thag lenge from Omkara and wanted to sing it from day one. But I was shown the mirror and advised to sing it only when I had achieved a certain distance in music. If I had attempted to sing Naina in the first or second round because it is my favourite song, I would have been out long back."

The 12 week of intense battle fought between the 10 participating jodis have churned out the top two extremely talented jodis competing for the Jjhoom India crown! It?s now the final chance for them to give everything to see their dream of becoming a singer come true. So don?t miss to catch the final performances by our awesome twosome jodis this Saturday January 12 at 9:00 pm on SaharaOne Television as they render songs in three different rounds from three different genre namely songs from Black and White era, songs from Colour era and Sufi music. For voting your favourite jodi to win them the Jjhoom India crown kindly refer the details below.

For Voting Sachin ? Madhushree TYPE SJI 05 on your mobile and send it to 59090 and landline users can dial 1862 4249 090 05

For Voting Varun ? Akriti TYPE SJI 02 on your mobile and send it to 59090 and landline users can dial 1862 4249 090 02

So India, watch the finals of Jjhoom India on 12 January at 9 p.m and vote for your favourite jodi to make them the Jjhoom India champion, to be announced at the Grand Finale episode on 18 January at 9p.m.

MUMBAI: A climate change programme for India was launched in Mumbai today by HSBC, the world?s first carbon neutral bank, together with four world-class environmental organisations - The Climate Group, Earthwatch Institute, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and WWF. The programme in India forms part of the HSBC Climate Partnership - a five year US$100 million initiative of the HSBC Group, to respond to the urgent threat of climate change worldwide with the same four partners - launched in May 2007.

• Through its partners HSBC will work with research institutions, businesses and individuals to combat the impact of climate change on forests, freshwater, cities and people. Of the US$100 million contribution by HSBC, the partners will spend US$12 million for work in India. The HSBC Climate Partnership India programme expects to achieve the following results in India by 2011:
• Freshwater: WWF will help reduce the impact of climate change on people and livelihoods by promoting action in the Ganga river basin in northern India. This will lead to the development of a sustainable water and energy management framework for critical parts of the Ganga Basin.
• Forests: STRI?s Center for Tropical Forest Science (CTFS) will conduct the largest-ever field experiment to understand the impact of climate change on the world?s tropical & non-tropical forests. Research will address how carbon is stored in forests and how this storage capacity will change in the future. CTFS will also investigate the role of forests in regulating fresh water in the environment, assessing in particular how floods and droughts will impact tropical ecosystem. Earthwatch will conduct research to understand how human activities affect the resilience of forests to climatic variability, thereby helping to find the best forest management strategies for the future.
• Cities: The Climate Group will assist leading businesses and the government in India to respond to the risks and opportunities of climate change and work with industry, governments and consumers to help Mumbai and Delhi become low carbon cities of the future.
• People: Earthwatch will provide specialised training to over 3000 HSBC employees in India and give them the opportunity to participate in local volunteering projects in their workplace and communities to become ?Climate Champions?.
  

Sandy Flockhart, CEO HSBC Asia-Pacific inaugurated the HSBC Climate Partnership India. Speaking on the occasion he said, "With a majority of India?s population living in rural areas whose livelihoods depend on agriculture, forests, and fisheries which are climate susceptible, there is a growing consensus on the need for understanding the environmental challenges facing India. The HSBC Climate Partnership in India will play a role in finding practical solutions and alternative means of low or no carbon development and growth, for the benefit of the Indian economy and people."

Steve Howard, CEO of The Climate Group said, "India will play a pivotal role in determining whether the world can avoid dangerous climate change. The challenge here is to limit emissions growth without compromising economic growth or human welfare development. World cities - concentrations of capital, decision makers, opinion formers and consumers - are where many of the solutions to climate change lie. Through the HSBC Climate Partnership we will work in Mumbai and Delhi to share best practices developed by our international corporate and government network, and to support local solutions"

Nigel Winser, Executive Director of Earthwatch (Europe) said, "We must act quickly if we are going to combat climate change. This partnership unites five different organizations, all with the single goal of making a difference and inspiring others to do the same. The Earthwatch task is to bring together top scientists - HSBC staff - and local communities - to speed up the knowledge required to understand the complex issue of climate change and to make clear and firm recommendations. We believe in inspiring action, not apathy. This programme will demonstrate that individuals can play a key role in protecting our planet."

Dr Ira Rubinoff, Director of STRI and Acting Under Secretary for Sciences, Smithsonian Institution said, "The Smithsonian has studied tropical forests for nearly one hundred years. We are setting up a network of new Global Earth Observatories, based on the longest running standardised forest monitoring programme, covering all the major tropical rainforest areas of the world. HSBC?s donation will enable the Smithsonian to deliver key scientific data in the hands of decision makers responsible for global carbon policy and water management."

Ravi Singh, Secretary General & CEO, WWF India said, "Never has it been more critical to recognise that we live in one world and the impacts of climate change will be felt by all, particularly vulnerable communities dependent on India?s freshwater systems. The Ganga, which is the lifeline for over 200 million people in this country, is in crisis due to a combination of climate impacts and human action. WWF India, as part of the HSBC Climate Partnership will build awareness and mobilize action at all levels to ensure that we have a living Ganga for future generations"

HSBC?s US$100 million partnership is the largest donation made to each of these charities and demonstrates HSBC?s ongoing commitment to sustainability.

MUMBAI: Recognized as India?s leading music channel, Channel [v] continues to set benchmarks in youth programming and TV content. And now the cutting edge creative innovation conceptualized by the channel has been recognized by the prestigious Proggy Awards. The most animal friendly TV channel was conferred upon [v] for running animal-friendly youth programming that creates awareness and educates the audiences to get more active on animal right issues. Over the past few years PETA and its affiliates have given these awards to those who have played significant role in educating and inspiring people to feel compassionately about the needs, nature of animals while promoting respect and empathy for animals.

Commenting post winning the award, Amar K Deb Head Honcho Channel [v] said,? It is an honor for us to win this prestigious award. We at Channel [v] have always been promoting the cause of animal right issues in India and we hope our contribution awakens the mind set of youth towards the same?

Channel [v] has a permanent PETA page on their website which is choc-o-bloc with features of animal rights and issues. Channel [v] also ran an enlightening spot about protecting dogs from the noise and chaos of Diwali. PETA acknowledged the contribution of Channel [v] towards raising animal right issues the [v] style!

MUMBAI: Star Plus is all set once again to give its viewers a reason to celebrate. All the favorite Jodis of Star Plus? popular afternoon shows ? Kumkum, Bhabhi, Saarthi and Karam Apna Apna get together to celebrate the special occasion and make it an afternoon to remember.The most adorable onscreen television couples - Sumit & Kumkum; Dev & Suhana; Rudra & Bhoomi; Shiv & Gauri gear up to present their best performances on Star Dopahar Dhamaka event, Fri, 11 January, 1-3 p.m. only on Star Plus.

But that?s not all? There are much more suprises stored for the day. This will include a stunning performance by the two sisters of Bidaai ? Ragini & Sadhna, a sensational act by the popular television actress Roshni Chopra and many many more performances that will keep viewers glued to their television screens.

Stay tuned & watch the very special Star Dopahar Dhamaka event, Fri, 11 January, 1p.m. ? 3p.m. only on Star Plus!!