NEW DELHI, June 05, 2013: HomeShop18, India?s leading virtual retailer launches designer cooktop by Advanta. The designer cooktop would be introduced by popular TV actress Smita Bansal of Balika Vadhu and Nach Baliye fame. Designed in a contemporary fashion, this elegant range of cooktops by Advanta will transform any kitchen and make the cooking experience enjoyable. The range of cooktops will be made available to HomeShop18 viewers at a special price starting from Rs. 3999/- onwards. The show featuring Smita Bansal will be aired on 9th June at 2pm exclusively on the HomeShop18 home shopping channel.

Advanta, a leading manufacturer of superior quality domestic L.P. Gas Stoves since three decades and is dedicated to offering world class quality gas & kitchen appliances. The new designer range of cooktops is available in 2, 3 and 4 burner options with stain resistant toughened glass top and colourful prints. With this new stylish range, Advanta and HomeShop18 are offering complete satisfaction to home-makers across India.

Announcing the association, Dhruva Chandrie, COO- HomeShop18 TV said ?Our association with Advanta and Smita Bansal is an initiative to bring the best, latest, modern and affordable kitchen products to our consumers. With HomeShop18?s unique reach to more than 3000 cities, all home-makers will be able to own this new range of cooktops with ease.?

Renowned TV actress Smita Bansal said ?Advanta designer cooktop range is timeless and extremely efficient to use. At HomeShop18, you can get this trendy cooktop delivered to your doorstep anywhere in the country at an affordable price. The experience of shopping from HomeShop18 has been superlative; they have helped me while I was redoing my kitchen.?

HomeShop18 has been providing great brands with great value to consumers for the last 5 years. New products are offered through value-driven shows and celebrity engagements on a regular basis. Shahrukh Khan, Karisma Kapoor, Shweta Tiwari, Sanjeev Kapoor are few celebrities who have been associated with HomeShop18 to bring best products to your doorstep.

CNN International today announced that the head of CNN Travel Andrew Demaria is to take on responsibility for the CNN editorial Digital team in Asia.

The appointment brings together the two units under his leadership and, as Executive Producer, Digital Asia and CNN Travel, Demaria will oversee both the cnn.com news team around the region and the international Travel team.

Nick Wrenn, Vice President of Digital Services for CNN International, says Demaria was a natural fit for the expanded role. ?Andrew has great experience at CNN having worked in Asia and Europe, across news and sponsored features, digital and TV,? he said. ?Andrew launched and led CNNGo out of Hong Kong and last year successfully created a new travel service for CNN.com International which has so far surpassed all its growth targets. I am delighted with this appointment.?

Originally from Melbourne, Australia, Demaria has been with CNN International since 2000. His new role sees him head up a team of 20 staff and oversee freelance contributors from around the world. He takes on the expanded portfolio in June.

In other CNN International digital news, Hong Kong-based Paul Armstrong has been promoted to Editor, News and Programming. Armstrong has been with CNN for more than five years and was pivotal in reshaping the digital newsgathering team in Asia.

CNN?s current Asia head of digital newsgathering Tyson Wheatley leaves his post for a new role at Facebook later this month.

NEW DELHI, June 5, 2013- Dell today announced results of the world?s first gender-focused, global entrepreneurship index based on the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index (GEDI) at its Dell Women?s Entrepreneur Network annual event.

The Gender-GEDI is the only global index to measure high-potential female entrepreneurship based on individual aspirations, business environments and entrepreneurial ecosystems. High-potential women entrepreneurs are defined as "innovative, market expanding and export oriented."

The positive impact that female entrepreneurs can have on countries with the foresight to empower them has been proven, and includes increased job creation and the generation of wealth. Yet most existing research in this field does not identify areas where countries should concentrate their efforts to remove barriers to female entrepreneurship such as access to the capital, technology, networks and knowledge needed to start and grow a business. The Gender-GEDI provides this unique contribution to understanding the development of high-potential female entrepreneurs worldwide supported by a diagnostic tool to help affect change.

Gender-GEDI is made up of 30 indicators and ranks 17 countries; Australia, Brazil, China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, Malaysia, Russia, South Africa, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom and the United States. Top ranking countries scored consistently well across a range of indices.

The U.S. scored high on indicators for good institutional foundations and a strong entrepreneurial environment, placing it No.1 in the rankings. Other top-ranking countries include; Australia (No. 2), Germany (No. 3), France (No. 4) and Mexico (No. 5). However, despite India?s recent economic surge, it ranked No. 16. Other rankings include Japan (12), Morocco (13), Brazil (14) and Egypt (15), and Uganda (No. 17).

"Unleashing the power of female entrepreneurship can have a dramatic effect on a country?s economy. The research clearly supports the assertion that key things need to be fixed in order for female entrepreneurship to survive and flourish," said Karen Quintos, chief marketing officer (CMO) and senior vice president Dell. "Increased access to knowledge, networks, capital and technology are critical if countries are to empower female entrepreneurship and create a culture of success."

Index Highlights

No single determinant of success
Top performing countries including the U.S. (No. 1) and Mexico (No. 5) scored consistently well across a wide range of indices, compared to low-performing countries, which were much more inconsistent. For example, India (No. 16) scored relatively high for ?opportunity recognition,? suggesting that the female population recognizes good opportunities for businesses where they live, but received low scores relating to ?institutional foundations,? indicating that the women?s ability to act on those perceived opportunities is limited.
Economic development is not enough
Being strong in key areas such as legal rights, education and access to finance do not automatically result in high-potential female entrepreneurship. In some countries, the business environment for success is right, but female entrepreneurship is still low. This is often due to social and cultural norms that make it less conducive for women to become entrepreneurs. Japan, U.K. and U.S. are all high income countries but Japan has the lowest percentage of female managers (9 percent) compared to U.S. (43 percent), leaving many women in Japan without the experience and skills to start their own businesses. This is the same for other low-performing countries; Turkey (10 percent), Egypt (11 percent) and Morocco (13 percent).
Lack of knowledge holds back business growth
There is a trend among less educated females in developing countries to take advantage of entrepreneurial opportunities, but without education they lack the skills to move their businesses beyond the micro level. With the exception of Japan (63 percent), only a relatively small percentage of female business owners in the low-performing countries are highly educated; Morocco (2 percent), Brazil (12 percent), Uganda (7 percent).
Access to finance is crucial
Few women have bank accounts in low-performing countries; Egypt (7 percent), Uganda (15 percent), India (26 percent) and Morocco (27 percent). This compares to almost 100 percent access in the top-performing countries, other than Mexico (22 percent). However, even in countries where access to a bank account is high, venture capital funding is still low. For example, in the U.S. only 3-5 percent of venture financing goes to women-owned businesses.
Effective networking can open doors
Networking with other entrepreneurs and having access to the Internet helps create opportunities for female entrepreneurs. In particular, the Internet provides new ways of networking that eliminate temporal and geographic, as well as gendered social constraints, that can limit women?s access to information and resources. In the U.K., 78 percent of Internet users are women, compared with less than 7 percent in India and Uganda.
Technology enables business growth
Technology is an essential component for fostering high-potential female entrepreneurship. While research and development does not guarantee successful growth, without systematic research activity, new product development and future growth will be inhibited. Turkey and Egypt scored very low in this area while Japan and the U.S. scored highly. Technology has also made it cheaper than ever to start a business and removes many of the social and physical barriers women must overcome to start their own businesses and connect with the resources they need. Entrepreneurs need scalable technology solutions that enable them to accelerate the growth of their business to succeed.
Not all rosy at the top
Despite ranking high on the Index, even top-performing countries have room to improve before they can achieve parity across all areas and fully unlock the contribution female entrepreneurs can deliver. For example, France and the U.K. have much lower ratios of female to male startups (48:100 and 46:100 respectively) than the U.S. (71:100) and Australia (85:100) showing that a large gap of ?underutilized entrepreneurship potential? remains, and the U.S. and U.K. need to improve the number of women graduating with science degrees (41 percent and 37 percent respectively) in order to prepare a larger pool of tech savvy high-potential female entrepreneurs.
Room for optimism
A lower relative GDP doesn?t dictate the success of women entrepreneurs; some countries like Mexico (No. 5) ranked much higher than others with a similar economic and cultural profile, e.g. Brazil (No. 14), suggesting that improving access to resources and providing a favorable business environment can have a major impact.
This new Gender-GEDI research demonstrates that the determinants of success for female entrepreneurship are not just personal strengths and aspirations, but a result of the environment in which they operate. By providing a cross-country comparison, the Index helps countries identify where they can improve conditions to encourage and support entrepreneurial success among women. Additionally, the Index highlights critical gaps in the current understanding of female entrepreneurship to provide the building blocks for future research.

GENDER-GEDI Rankings
1. USA
2. Australia
3. Germany
4. France
5. Mexico
6. UK
7. South Africa
8. China
9. Malaysia
10. Russia
11. Turkey
12. Japan
13. Morocco
14. Brazil
15. Egypt
16. India
17. Uganda

The executive summary and full report can be found at dell.com/women

NEW DELHI, 06th June 2013,: VivaKi Partnerships Unit (VPU) has won the media mandate for Better Option Propmart Pvt Ltd, one of the premiere real estate advisory firms in India in a multi- agency pitch. The mandate will include print, digital and outdoor media.

Better Option Propmart Pvt Ltd (BOP Group) with more than 50,000 satisfied customers and 14 state of the art BOP studios across India, Singapore and Dubai is one of the leading names in real estate sector. Over the last 5 years BOP has developed a high performance channel network involving 700 real estate consultants across the globe. BOP is the name behind underwriting of prestigious projects from realty giants like DLF, Jaypee Greens, Logix and Wave Infratech.

Talking about the association, Amit Mavi, Founder and Managing Director, BOP Group said, ?With VivaKi Partnerships Unit coming on-board, BOP bids to capture the untapped market segments and build new avenues for branding opportunities. It also seeks to reach the new age, technology savvy consumer that is actively seeking information through its online services?.

Speaking on the win, Mona Jain, CEO, VivaKi Exchange said, ?We are excited to be associated with Better Option Propmart Pvt Ltd. for their media mandate. With the adaptation of digital marketing in the real estate sector we are confident to work towards making BOP a great success.?

VivaKi Partnerships Unit (VPU) is a special unit housed under VivaKi Exchange. The unit is a focused initiative by VivaKi, to pursue partnerships with local, full- service agencies and media agencies, in tier II and III markets across the country. These partnerships are in the form of exclusive relationships to support the agencies on their strategic marketing plans and provide other value-added services. Additionally, VivaKi Partnerships also works with small size advertisers to help them achieve better pricing value on their media spends.