MUMBAI: He dazzled the silver screen with his splendor and now he electrifies the radio waves on Radio One FM 94.3‘s BBC Ek Mulakat.Shatrughna Sinha, considered one of the most successful actor-politician of India, made history by being the first member of the film fraternity to become a cabinet minister with the Government of India. In a heart warming t?te-?-t?te with Sanjeev Srivastava on BBC Ek Mulakat aired every Sunday at 12 noon on Radio One FM 94.3, the top Bollywood film star of the 1970s and 1980s and popular politician, Shatrughna Sinha declares on-air, "Films are my first love. I entered politics due to my responsibilities towards society."

For the first time he shares the secret of his success on Ek Mulakat for his audiences, saying "Mahatma Gandhi had said that to succeed in any movement or campaign you have to encounter and go past four things. Firstly - ridicule, secondly - contempt, thirdly - censure, and fourthly - oppression. If you are able to face these four difficulties then success and honour will be yours." The Shotgun Sinha further adds, "If you want to be successful in life, prove yourself and if you are not able to do so for any reason, then show how distinct you are from others. Now you see people imitating/mimicking me. But you would have never seen me imitating others. That‘s because of this mantra."

A quite person by nature, yet famous for his style of dialogue delivery of, "Khamosh?" Shatrughna Sinha converses on friends, foes, fans and his past too. He reveals that his father wanted him to become a scientist or doctor, but he didn‘t fit in either, he says, "Now it‘s a different thing that I became India‘s health minister one day." As of May 2006, he has been appointed as the head of the BJP Culture and Arts Department.

Talking on his days of playing villainous roles, to being the favorite of many first time directors, to his highest regards for veterans like Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar, who he terms as "Institutes in themselves", also appreciating modern day cinema with Shah Rukh Khan for movies like ‘Chak De India‘, Shatrughna Sinha makes your Sunday afternoon worth a while.

Tune in to BBC Ek Mulakat on Radio One FM 94.3 on Sunday, 7th October 2007 at 12 noon to listen to the legendary Shatrughna Sinha

MUMBAI: The Indian automotive industry has seen an exponential growth, with increasing number of cars sold and new models launched every month. However, there is no platform mapping this incredible augmentation and charting a blueprint for its future.To bridge this chasm, CNBC AWAAZ India‘s first dedicated Business and Consumer Channel & ICICI Bank Car Loans had initiated a series that serves as a comprehensive and reliable guide to the Indian Auto Sector- The Auto Evolution Series in Delhi.

As part of the series, Ms. Shereen Bhan, leading anchor from Network 18, hosted an exclusive panel discussion on the future of the auto industry in our country. The topic of discussion for the televised forum was "Is the auto industry in need of re-invention?"
The panelists for the discussion were Mr. Sanjay Labroo, President ACMA & CEO, Asahi Glass, Dr. Pawan Goenka, President - Automotive Sector- M&M, Mr. S Sandilya, Chairman, Eicher Motors, Mr. Surajit Mitra, Jt Secy, Ministry Of Heavy Industries and Mr. Rajiv Sabherwal, ICICI Bank.

The discussion revolved around the Indian Automobile sector, and its importance in the global scenario. The Indian Auto sector is high on growth trajectory and is expected to touch great heights. To cope with this transformation, auto manufacturers need to scale up in every aspect- be it marketing, sales and distribution or even production. Speaking on the event, Shereen Bhan commented "The auto Industry globally has become a wealth destroyer as opposed to a wealth creater, the challenge for manufacturers is to produce economical, reliable, high quality vehicles and yet maintain profitability"

The Panel discussion was followed by a informative presentation on an Index by Jairaj Jatar, Head of Motoresearch, Synovate as part of the Auto Evolution series. The automotive research arm of the global market research company Synovate. The Auto Satisfaction Index, now in its inaugural year, measures car owner satisfaction from the perspective of ‘what excites and delights Indian car owners about their vehicle‘s performance and design‘ The study measures overall satisfaction of vehicle owners within 6-24 months of ownership. The first leg of the CNBC Auto Satisfaction Index (CSI) study is based on responses from more than 900 owners with a focus on 18 ‘high volume sellers‘ in India. Drawn from three distinct segments - Small, Medium & Large. The study was fielded from August to September 2007

Overall satisfaction index is based on the consumers perceptions on 3 main factors experienced during his ownership period viz. vehicle performance, cost of ownership and value for money. These conclusions manifest themselves based on seven aspects Viz. Actual purchase experience, interactions with dealer salesman, vehicle appeal, vehicle performance, driving pleasure, cost of ownership (maintenance & running expenses) and after sales service experience.

Key Findings of the study are

In the small car segment, Maruti Alto has emerged the winner. What has worked for Alto? The consumers have rated Alto high on the attributes- convenience of location of its dealer network and the entire purchase experience.

The second category evaluated was the midsize segment. Hyundai Accent/ Viva and Ford Fiesta were tied at the number one position. Customers rated the winners high on vehicle performance which primarily includes ‘engine performance‘ and ‘acceleration‘.

Finally, in the large size segment, Skoda Octavia bagged the top spot. Fuel Economy and Fit and Finish were the two major drivers ruling in their favor.

More details on the index can be found at ibnlive.com/auto

Key Pointers of the study are

The large segment car owners (cost of vehicle in double digits) report a 5% higher satisfaction on all touch points. Perhaps this is a result of preferential treatment given to them.

The twin aspects of ‘Maintenance & running cost‘ and ‘After sales service‘ are the ‘great levelers‘ with all segments scoring low on these. These therefore continue to remain a challenge for the Indian automobile industry

‘Maintenance & Running Costs‘ has the strongest impact on satisfaction and thus is the No.1 key driver for car owner satisfaction. Within that, across segments, ‘fuel economy‘ is closely followed by ‘cost of spares‘ as a differentiator.

Vehicle Performance is the second strongest key driver for car owner satisfaction. For the layman/ average consumer, the two most important factors are ‘engine performance‘ and ‘pick up/ acceleration on city roads‘ A healthy proportion of as man as 90% of new car owners opt for ‘authorised service centres‘ in their early ownership stage.

Vehicle Appeal is the third strongest key driver for car owner satisfaction. Surprisingly, looks and aesthetics is still not a key driver for the Indian car owner ( as compared to maybe car owners in developed markets).What matters most is ‘product design and functioning‘ with features ( both exterior and interior) being key differentiators. Hence the Indian car owner comes across as being ‘value conscious‘. For the small car segment owner, ‘durability‘ is an additional driver.

Although ‘convenience of dealer location‘ contributes positively to the purchase experience, for the small car owner relatively speaking ‘ease of accessing finance‘ is more important.

The study also examines environmental and infrastructural issues related to car ownership. Key Findings of these aspects of the study are as follows -

Indian customers seem to be somewhat less demanding in terms of quality and tend to attribute their driving experience and vehicle performance to infrastructural weaknesses ( viz. quality of roads, traffic discipline, etc. ) rather than their vehicle‘s quality

Except for locations like Surat, Nagpur, Jaipur, at all other locations‘ claim for choosing vehicles based on safety features is high. Also, an increasing proportion of car owners claim that ‘safety‘ will be a key criteria for next vehicle purchase- indicating an increasing awareness for safety regulations and willingness to spend more for a safer car.

Opinion on road conditions is varied with Mumbai and Delhi having a balanced opinion. Kolkata is the worst off on ‘road conditions‘.

Overall ratings on levels of pollution are understandably high. and so we see a keen preference for cars that offer non-polluting options.

MUMBAI: Radio Cityzens in Mumbai, Delhi , Jaipur, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Surat will be in for a musical surprise on October 5-6, 2007 as celebrated singer Shaan joins Mumbai Radio City 91.1FM‘s RJ Archana as a celebrity RJ on the Radio City Breakfast Show. Listeners can tune into the Radio City Breakfast Show for the ‘Amul Star Voice of India‘ Special where celebrity RJ Shaan will give listeners the inside scoop on Amul Star Voice of India; including exclusive chats with the finalists and music directors Jatin-Lalit.

Radio City is the exclusive radio partner for ‘Amul Star Voice of India‘. As part of the association, the FM station‘s ‘Amul Star Voice of India‘ special on October 5-6, 2007 will highlight the essence of one of India‘s most popular reality talent show capturing the lesser-known facets of the contestants. The show will feature contestants sharing their experience so far with the talent show.

Listeners can also tune into Star Plus at 7.30PM on Friday, October 5, 2007 to see their favorite RJ Archana along with celebrity RJ Shaan interacting with the contestants in a half hour reality Radio City ? Amul Star Voice of India special.

So to catch all the excitement on Amul Star Voice of India. Tune into the Radio City Breakfast Show on October 5-6. Only on Radio City 91.1FM!

MUMBAI: It gives us great pleasure in inviting you for the launch and discussion of the book ‘Close Every Door‘ by author & poet Shomshuklla Das. The book is a collection of poems born as a result of the poet‘s travels, musings and personal experiences.

Noted Lyricist Prasoon Joshi will launch the book while Peter Griffin - Caferati, amongst other noted poets CP Surendran, Menka Shivdasani, Arundhati Subramanium, & Anju Makhija will read excerpts from the book and discuss on the subject of the book along with the author.

MUMBAI: TIMES NOW, India‘s leading English news television channel of big stories presents millions of news viewers an excellent news viewing experience with well packaged, fast, pacy and all new 10 PM programme.TIMES NOW brings to its audience an entire gamut of shows in an insightful manner giving them a perspective on all that is happening around the world. Having established its supremacy over Prime time with Newshour at 9 PM, TIMES NOW has now launched ‘10PM‘ - a definitive hard core news show adding the extra news punch in the weekday Prime time.

Commenting on the launch of the new show, Arnab Goswami, Editor-in-chief, TIMES NOW said, "TIMES NOW has received tremendous viewer response in the prime-time and new morning news line-up establishing TIMES NOW as the most viewed news channel in 2007. We have identified viewers demand for news from time to time introduced shows that cater to our target audiences. The growing viewer ship signifies TIMES NOW‘s preference over our competition."

Starting October 2007, TIMES NOW introduces the ‘All New Prime time line-up‘ 7.30pm onwards which encapsulates the entire day‘s news right from sports, city news, entertainment and international events through its robust line-up. TIMES NOW has emerged as the most viewed news channel in the country with standing ahead of competition 22 out of 38 weeks. (*TAM, CS 15+ Male, 1Mn+ Mkts, Wk 1-38)

With the introduction of this new prime-time line-up, TIME NOW has aggressively made itself present in all possible slots starting from its breakfast shows till the prime time offerings. The live telecast of ‘The Morning Show‘ has already made headway with its daily dose of "real infotainment" and the latest introduction of ‘9pm‘ and ‘Heart of the Matter‘ on the weekends has further strengthened TIMES NOW‘s position as the number one English news channel.

MUMBAI: Multi-award winning documentary, Seven Days That Changed New Orleans is an intimate look at people affected by Hurricane Katrina as seen through the eyes of the American news team at WDSU-TV.The news service serves as the home of the national NBC News Bureau in New Orleans.

WDSU reporter Travers Mackel was one of only a handful of journalists to ride out the storm in the Louisiana Superdome and offer live, firsthand reports as parts of the Superdome roof blew off.

Mackel was also on a police boat, bringing viewers the story of rescue attempts hours after the levees broke in New Orleans, when much of the city was under water. Such compelling journalistic accounts are the basis of Seven Days That Changed New Orleans.

Zoom in to Zone Reality to watch the reality of ‘Seven Days That Changed New Orleans‘ on 5 October 2007 a 8.20pm.