MUMBAI: CNN-IBN, India‘s Best English news channel is all set to conduct the much awaited ‘CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 2008 in partnership with Hindustan Times‘ for the third time, adhering to the still unparalleled four-tier process.These awards recognize, celebrate and honour Indians who have contributed to our country, and in turn have strengthened our society and contributed to building Brand India in 2008. This year‘s awards are even more significant as they personify the undying spirit of a billion free Indian minds, in the wake of terror, natural disaster and economic challenges.

Since its inception in 2006, ‘CNN-IBN Indian of the Year‘ has been the benchmark for credibility and transparency in awards leaving nothing left uncovered as to why the nominees were selected and how the winners were declared. This credible platform aspires to become the highest civilian honour outside those awarded by the Government. This is best illustrated by the fact that winners of the CNN-IBN Indian of the Year awards, who are great achievers in their own right, have really deemed it an honour to have been bestowed these prestigious awards. These awards have gone on to become the much awaited and the most anticipated awards of the year. The financial giant IFCI Limited is the presenting sponsor for this year.

The exquisitely crafted CNN-IBN Indian of the Year trophy contains more than 5000 crystals from Crystalized Swarovski Elements, who are the trophy partners from the inception of the awards.

Attended by the who‘s who of the nation, last year the awards received unprecedented appreciation by the eminent citizens. Winners of the ‘CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 2007‘ in various award categories were, Mr. P Chidambaram in Politics, Mr. Vishwanathan Anand in Sports, Mr. O. P. Bhatt in Business, Mr. Shimit Amin & Mr. Jaideep Sahni in Entertainment, Mr E. Sreedharan in Public Service, and Mr. Arun Sarin in the Global Indian categories, respectively. Mr. E Sreedharan went on to win the coveted The CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 2007.

‘CNN-IBN Indian of the Year‘ is a unique award that involves the citizens of the country to participate in every stage from nominations to final award winner. An elaborate four-tier process is consistently followed while selecting the winners. The four-tier process includes:

Tier - 1: The Editorial Board draw a list of Nominees
The IBN18 Editorial board including Raghav Bahl, Rajdeep Sardesai, Ashutosh, Nikhil Wagle, in consultation with Editorial board of Hindustan Times, are responsible for generating the first list of nominations.

Tier - 2: ‘The Jury‘ ratifies the list on Nominees
The Jury, constituting of eminent Indians who are all recipients of India‘s highest state honours like Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shrees ratify the final list of nominees for each category. Jury members include Mr. Soli Sorabjee, Mr. Deepak Parekh Mr. Nandan Nilekani, Ms.Shobhana Bhartiya, Mr. Geet Sethi, and Mr. Mohanlal.

Tier - 3: The Electoral College Votes
The Electoral College constitutes over 100 contemporary Indian leaders; Indians who are extraordinary performers in their own field - politics, bureaucracy, defence, academics, corporate, entertainment, sports, science, literature etc; This intelligentsia of the nation will vote for their choice.

Tier - 4: The Citizens Vote
The fourth tier in this whole process is the Vox Populi - i.e. people are encouraged to cast their vote through three available mechanisms:
o www. Indianoftheyear.com & IBNLive.com - An exhaustive micro site will enable online casting of the citizen‘s franchise
o SMS 52622 - This will enable the casting of votes through cell phones
o Vote through IVR

After the above process has determined the six individual winners of all six categories, the jury members go through a rigorous exercise on ratifying the category winners and then mutually decide who amongst the six will be honoured with ‘CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 2008‘

MUMBAI: Ibibo.com showcased and celebrated the achievements of the young talent recongnised and rewarded by the site and the mentors for most popular iFashion Photographer, iFreshFace and iVideoStar contests running on the website. The celebrations were extravagant with Jatin Kampani for iPhotographer, Dabboo Ratnani & Sushma Puri,CEO, Elite Model Management for iFreshFace and Bosco & Caeser for iVideoStar.

Mentors have been all delighted with the fresh talent being recognized and rewarded through an apt platform. iFreshFace winners ? Mansi Sharma, Chandni Nasir, Morvi Kumar and Sonica D‘Souza have got their portfolio shot by Dabboo Ratnani and signed a two year contract with Elite Model management. The winners for iVideoStar received an overwhelming response for launching a video specially choreographed by the famous duo Bosco & Caeser for the winners in a unique style.

The Indian youth have an inherent self confidence and a burning desire to express their talent to the rest of the world. Realizing this desire, ibibo has been providing the right kind of platform for the youth to fulfill their aspirations. ibibo through its different initiatives is reaching out to a sea of talent pools and connecting them with the industry. For all these initiatives, ibibo has partnered with the best from the industry.

"All these initiatives are part of our vision to provide a platform to the ibibo community to showcase their talent and get recognized. Through our innovative approach, we have been incubating and unleashing numerous innovative talent applications for the youth. We will continue to incubate, recognize and reward individuals with immense talent," commented Ashish Kashyap, CEO, ibibo.com.

ibibo‘s baseline "i Build, i Bond" is the crux of its existence. It empowers a user to showcase his talent by expressing himself and thus, build and bond with an eager audience for his or her talent. The ibibo community has been using a plethora of powerful communication tools to connect and share their expression, ranging from instant messaging, e-mail, blogging, photos, videos, asking and answering questions, exchanging free SMSs and chatting.

Access to the right kind of target audience is motivating corporate, brands and movie production houses to opt for ibibo as the most effective platform to engage with their consumers. ibibo.com enables them to leverage the viral power of the social network and to intimately interact and engage with their customers. ibibo creates customized branded applications for advertisers to target the right set of audience.

Due to its user friendly initiatives, in a short span of time, the social networking site has received its due recognition from different peers of the industry. The company has become one of the fastest growing Internet based social media businesses in India. ibibo has also received the prestigious PC Web Awards 2008 for Best Designed Social Network. This was possible because of the active ibibo community and its regular feedback.

Launched in January 2007, ibibo.com has continually evolved by listening to and then meeting the intrinsic needs of the country‘s young people. The core age group is 18-24, with a male, female ratio of 70:30. The ibibo community is currently more than 3.3 million strong, making it the largest India based social networking site in the country. And most importantly, 59% of user base is from tier 2 and tier 3 cities and towns of India.

MUMBAI: As 2009 begins, New Year resolutions are the first thing that anyone thinks of. OOH Media (Out-of-Home Media) caught the celeb galaxy including Shah Rukh Khan, Sushma Reddy, Rahul Bose, Kunal Kapoor and other stars to share their New Year resolution as a part of the OOH Celeb Speak campaign, to welcome 2009.

Says Ashutosh Parekh, National Content Head, OOH Media, "We wish our audience a very Happy 2009 with these specially packaged celeb bytes. These messages add relevance to our screens as Indians love watching their favourite stars on AV medium. This also adds glitz to our screens and enhances the glam quotient.‘

The campaign is currently running across the entire OOH Media‘s national network, so walk into any mall, multiplex, gym, bookstore, your workplace where an OOH Media screen Is present and watch your star tell you about his resolution.

OOH Media recently did the ‘Don‘t Drink and Drive‘ Campaign across their network to align with the Partying Season which had the likes of Konkona Sen talking to people to drive safe, under their OOH cares screen property.

MUMBAI

: Get ready for an exciting episode of Big Brother -Till Death do you Part‘ Season 9 USA, as Chelsia is identified as the biggest threat in the Big Brother household! Catch Sharon as she sits back to enjoy and watch Chelsia dig her own grave! On the other hand, watch James distance himself from Chelsia even though she has developed feelings for him! Gear up for another eviction and a new Head of Household in the Big Brother house!

All this and more only on Big Brother, this Wednesday at 10:00 pm exclusively on Vh1!

MUMBAI: Hyderabad‘s chaala hot radio station Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM makes a starry beginning to the New year with Actor Ram ? the latest Tollywood sensation.Ram was at the Radio Mirchi studios to promote his latest movie ‘Maska‘ with the Bollywood damsel Hansika Motwani, which is slated as the big release this Sankranti.

Ram was in Mirchi studios to interact with his fans and to share his experience of working in the movie, about Hansika Motwani, his upcoming projects, his wish lists of actors, directors and ofcourse girls etc?. Maska is yet another youthful entertainer in lines with Ready (Ram‘s previous blockbuster) produced by MS Raju ? the most successful Tollywood producer in the recent times. Known for the picturesque & colorful picturisation of songs in all MS Raju films, Maska too is set to entertain the audience with the utmost visual treat.

A unique on-air contest was held on Radio Mirchi based on MS Raju‘s fixation to picturesque song sequences, where in the listeners had to make guesses on the song sequence starting from Ram‘s dress code to song picturisation for the song "Gunde godarila. However, few on-air tips and help were provided to the listeners with sound bytes from Ram. The ones who got close to the concept were given a life time chance to meet the hero.

After delivering a super-duper hit in 2008 with his movie ? Ready, Ram is set make yet another impact with his next release. Speaking on the occasion, Ram said, "Radio Mirchi is an absolute mix of good will & entertainment, the last time I was associated with Radio Mirchi as a good will ambassador for an initiative on Children‘s Day and this time I am here to interact with my fans. Thanks to Radio Mirchi for having given me the opportunity to be part of its programming"

MUMBAI: Audi, the German luxury car manufacturer announced today its sales figures for the calendar year 2008. Audi India‘s vehicle sales volume countrywide grew by 201 percent to 1,050 cars as compared to 349 units in 2007. In spite of the adverse market situation the last quarter has been impressive for Audi India as sales grew by 229 percent to 273 units as compared to 83 units in 2007. The month of December saw an increase of 145 percent to 76 cars as compared to 31 cars in December 2007.

"The year 2008 has been an exciting time for Audi India as we not only have achieved but exceeded our projected targets despite the overall slowdown in the automobile market. Having tripled our dealership network as compared to the previous year we are confident that we will take the brand even further to another level in 2009. Believing in the core brand value ‘Vorsprung durch Technik‘ Audi looks forward to become the most successful premium brand in India in the coming years," said Benoit Tiers, Managing Director Audi India.

In 2008 Audi launched the new Audi A4 and the super sports car Audi R8 in India. The Audi A4 recorded impressive sales in the last quarter and the
Audi R8 was sold out for 2008 even before the official launch.

As a manufacturer of progressive, sophisticated and technically perfect luxury cars, Audi‘s aura of glamour and lifestyle was associated with several high profile events in India in 2008 which included sponsoring of the leading fashion event of the year, Wills Lifestyle Fashion Week, the IIFA awards, Zubin Mehta‘s Concerts and many more. The unveiling of the spectacular sports car Audi R8 in Delhi in November 2008 was as much a style statement as it was a launch of a high performance super sports car.

The Audi model range in India comprising the new Audi A4, the Audi A6, the Audi A8, the Audi Q7, the Audi TT and Audi R8 is available at present at twelve dealerships across the country: in Delhi, Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Ludhiana, Chennai, Kochi and Kolkata.