New Delhi : STAR India has bagged back-to-back awards - the prestigious Aegis Graham Bell Award and News Corporation?s GEI (Global Energy Initiative) Innovator Award -- for its green initiative that encouraged tapeless environment.

STAR India won the award that recognizes Innovation in TV, Broadcast and DTH for sustainability at the Aegis Graham Bell Awards, beating more than 100 nominees across categories. The Aegis Graham Bell Award follows the honour for Content Live by way of News Corporation?s GEI Innovator Award last month.

R. Balu, Head and EVP - Broadcast Technology, Krishnan Kutty Head and EVP - Distribution and Gajendra Tijare Senior Vice President - Broadcast Technology received the award on STAR India?s behalf.

The network?s Content Live service, rolled out in January last year, encourages advertisers to go digital while uploading marketing content, thus reducing carbon footprint. Besides, it also enables reduction in spends on traditional tapes and transportation fuel.

"It?s a double delight for us at STAR and encourages to further work toward reducing carbon footprint," Sanjay Gupta, COO of Star India, said. "This initiative also forms an integral part of the movement to reduce the same by discouraging the use of tapes."

With Content Live?s new digital workflow, the team dissolved the need for the 2,245 tapes per week and additional 2,500 from advertisers that STAR was previously receiving. This eliminated 153.3 tonnes of CO2 from transportation per messenger per year. STAR also became the first broadcaster in India to go tapeless and digital.

Going tapeless, in addition to reducing costs, also allowed STAR?s clients remove time inefficiencies. Cost savings were delivered to customers by enabling cut in expenditure on hardware such as tapes, logistics and dubbing.

Besides, tape-based system was also vulnerable to external factors such as custom hold- ups, traffic that can delay the delivery of tapes and thereby delaying the entire process.

Aegis Graham Bell Awards 2012, India?s largest and the only award that recognizes innovations in field of Telecom, Internet, Media and Edutainment (TIME), was held on 1 November in New Delhi. It is an initiative by the Aegis School of Business & Telecom, 21st Convergence India 2013 and supported by the Cellular Operators Association of India. The selection of winners is validated by PwC as knowledge partners.

MUMBAI: The Berlin School of Creative Leadership is proud to announce the ?Piyush Pandey Creative Leadership Scholarship?. This special scholarship opportunity was established to honour Indian Ad Guru PiyushPandey?s long-standing service and support of the Berlin School.

The scholarship will provide full tuition support for a top creative executive from India to participate on the Berlin School?s prestigious part-time global EMBA program starting in March 2013.

"It is not enough to source talent to be successful in today?s creative industries, says Piyush Pandey, Executive Chairman and Creative Director, South Asia Ogilvy & Mather India. ?One has to nurture, encourage and develop creative talent on an on-going basis, By emphasizing the importance leadership as a key differentiator in driving creative excellence, the Berlin School offers tremendous value and inspiration to creative companies as well as their clients."

Most recently Pandey served as Berlin School EMBA class ?Godfather?, in which he attended select program modules and served as an honorary industry mentor to senior creative executives from around the world.Previous Berlin School "Godfathers" include creative industry legends such as Keith Reinhard (DDB Worldwide), Seymour Stein (Sire Records) and Sir John Hegarty (BBH).

Berlin School of Creative Leadership Director, Sheridan Johns, comments that, ?We are thrilled to honourPiyush Pandey in this way and equally excited that in doing so the Berlin School is able to help support leadership in the creative industries in India.?

Piyush Pandey has been named the most influential man in Indian advertising eight years in a row by The Economic Times, India?s premier business paper.

Piyush was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for 2010 by the Advertising Agencies Association of India. Piyush hates being called the Godfather of Indian Advertising, a title often thrust upon him. He would rather be known as the Minister of Fun at O&M Advertising.

MUMBAI:The wait is finally over. Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad launches Micanvas, its annual marketing management fest. The inauguration ceremony on 1st November? 12, saw Anand Halve, interact with students. Anand Halve, a befitting Chief Guest, is a post-graduate in management by education (IIMA); brand consultant by profession (co-founder- chlorophyll brand & communications consultancy); teacher at heart (visiting faculty MICA and IIMA); and Hindustani poet in spirit.

The action starts on 2nd November with a variety of formal and informal events. Last Manager Standing & The Dusty Trail are the flagship events of Micanvas. Formal events include Global Tadka which is about taking an indigenous Indian product and launching it in a foreign land, Orange Box tests participants on their ability to adapt a product to a greatly altered TG and to cope with uncertainities, Metrotopia is a Super hero event with a managerial twist, Blank Board is about the concept of Customerization, Cafe Strat & Fortify are brand events with a business model focus and a research based study in them respectively.

Informal events include Spotlight, Juxtapose and Slide rules which will provide students a platform to display their cultural talents. The mayhem just doesn?t end there. The Micanvas team has organised radio workshops, salsa classes, Treasure hunts, Logo Hunt and movie screenings to keep the crowd constantly entertained.

The festival will end on this Sunday, 4th November, with Adrenaline, a gala concert, which will see stellar performances by Benny Dayal, Anushka Manchanda and DJ Suketu. The artists are known for their popular songs Daaru Desi,Ek Main Hoon Aur Ek Tu,Pappu Can?t Dance Saala,Dum Maro Dum,Golmaal etc.

The concert is open for all Ahmedabadis and tickets can be purchased online through KyaZoonga.com and offline at PVRcinemas and Iscon mall. For more information on the same, please contact 9909962791 and 9724573333

Mumbai: Tata Capital has come on board as one of the associate sponsors for the inaugural Indikaleido, a three-day dance, music and art festival, to take place at the Horniman Circle Garden in Mumbai. The festival, which will take place from the 2nd to the 4th of November, will be a virtual kaleidoscope of music, children?s events, workshops, art, shopping, food and heritage exhibits.

Tata Capital?s brand promise, ?We only do what?s right for you?, mixes in seamlessly with the theme of Indikaleido 2012, which will look at bringing together people from different walks of life and giving them a holistic view of art and culture. Tata Capital as a brand has always supported the arts and looks to extend this support to the various activities of the festival. More specifically, the message of ?doing right? will be woven into the workshops for children that will happen on all the three days. These workshops, which cover art & craft, puppetry, music, astronomy etc., will give children of different age groups a taste of diverse subjects with an essence of morals and values. The series kicks off with the Story Telling workshop which builds on the theme ?Be a Hero? ? the idea that the human spirit is bigger than any circumstance and that there is a hero in all of us, who will only do ?what?s right?. The other workshops -?Make your own Puppet?, ?Rags to Paper?, ?Theatre?, ?Glasshopper? etc. follow a similar theme and are designed to infuse a sense of creativity and interactivity into children at a young age while passing on socially, morally and environmentally relevant messages.

Speaking on the association, Veetika Deoras, Head Brand Marketing & Corporate Communication at Tata Capital, said ?We are happy to associate with Indikaleido and specifically with the workshops for children. Tata Capital, as a brand, believes in ?Doing What?s Right? and if the children take out a positive message out of the workshops, it will be a proud moment for us.?

Mumbai: Simi Garewal, the eternal diva of cinema, recently announced the launch of her personalized voice enabled website (www.simigarewal.com), which she describes to be ? ?like her biography?. Having acted in more than 50 films, Simi writes about her journey in Cinema, her favourite films & directors. The site covers her comprehensive journey from Bollywood to Television - as actor, writer, producer, host & director. Additionally, on the digital front, she has also created her very own YouTube channel, ?SimiGarewalOfficial? in order to make content available to fans, with great ease and comfort.

No sooner was the website live, then numerous fans reverted with splendid feedback as to how they were extremely excited to converse with her on a one-on-one level. Fans adored the website and were anxious to start interacting with the diva herself. A leading director exclaimed, ?What a super website Simi! Loved the format, loved the writing and above all, loved the innate honesty and elegance. The family section is superb. The sections-Behind the Camera, as well as the Songs Section in the Cinema chapter are simply amazing.?

On launching the website, Simi Garewal said, "I have spent the last four months continuously working on the site. I have visited several websites of film folk around the world. I found them quite business-like. My website is personal, each word has been penned by me and I?ve also put together the designs and music to make it as perfect as I can. It?s like my personal and professional biography really, starting from my family, films, docus and TV shows. Luckily, I?ve always maintained a diary and it really came handy now. Viewers can now read about my encounters with Rajiv Gandhi, Raj Kapoor, Satyajit Ray and so many others; also, my personal comments on my Rendezvous guests.

?It?s an extensive but highly detailed site- it will take people days, maybe weeks to go through it!? I have also spoken about love, marriage, my fashion style and my thoughts. Apart from all this, I believe, for the first time, people will get an insight into my personal life -and me personally!" My site is going to continue to grow as I will constantly update and add to it. I hope it will become highly interactive soon,? she added.

Simi Garewal has also produced, directed and hosted the talk show Rendezvous with Simi Garewal, which ruled TV chat shows for more than a decade. Over the years she has interviewed more than 200 people. Last year, Simi Selects-India?s Most Desirable on Star World was avidly talked about with its single, eligible and desirable guests ? a few among them were - Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra, Shahid Kapoor, Freida Pinto, John Abraham, Sonakshi Sinha, Yuvraj Singh, Siddharth Mallya and even Lady Ga Ga. The site will include full episodes of all Simi Garewal?s TV shows.

MUMBAI: HISTORY TV18 presents, ?Barack Obama ? Great Expectation? a classic documentary that chronicles his experience of being one of the most powerful men in the world - President of the United States of America. It is the story of the first ever African American to hold the office of this significance.

The film takes viewers inside the fortified doors of the White House, the arena where Mr. President had to deal, make judgments on crucial global issues. In his tenure he not only had to deal with economic emergencies, but also combat constant criticism from various fronts.

James Traub, political journalist for the New York Times Magazine, goes behind the scenes of this tumultuous Presidency with interviews with leading political analysts and main advisors. The series is an exclusive footage of the White House and the Obama administration from NBC News Archives. It will allow the viewers to walk the halls of the White House and go backstage with the President of the USA.

Find out what happens when the excellent speeches and best intentions meet up with the remorseless reality of economic recession and relentless political criticism.

Watch this eye opening document in a 2 part series only on HISTORY TV18 premiering on Wednesday, 31st October, 2012 at 9:00 pm.