MUMBAI: Total 8.46 million telephone connections (Wireline and Wireless) have been added during May 2008 as compared to 8.00 million connections added in April 2008. The total number of telephone connections reaches 316.97 million at the end of May 2008 as compared to 308.51 million in April 2008. The overall tele-density is 27.59% at the end of May 2008 as against 26.89% in April 2008.

The total wireless subscribers (GSM, CDMA & WLL(F)) base stood at 277.92 million at the end of May 2008. A total of 8.62 million wireless subscribers have been added during the month of May 2008 as against 8.21 million wireless subscribers added during the month of April 2008. Circle-wise wireless subscriber base of service providers is given at Annexure-I.

In the wireline segment, the subscriber base has slightly decreased to 39.05 million in the month of May 2008 as against 39.21 million subscribers in April 2008. Circle-wise wireline subscriber base of service providers is given at Annexure-II.

MUMBAI: After featuring powerhouse performances and enthralling the audience by the biggest stars in critically acclaimed movies that were appreciated worldwide on Oscar Fever, Star Gold will presents for the first time in Hindi the exclusive telecast of the 80th Annual Academy Awards on Sunday, June 29th: at 8 pm.

The biggest celebrity event in showbiz, the Academy Awards recognize the year?s best achievements in film. As the stars head into the Kodak Theatre at Los Angeles, pundits will be weighing in on the outfits, nominees and hot favorites. Look for interviews with the stars and starlets and don?t forget to catch Hollywood?s biggest stars, directors and celebrities as they celebrate Hollywood?s biggest award on Star Gold.

So join in the excitement and catch the exclusive telecast of the 80th Annual Academy Awards in Hindi on Sunday, June 29th: at 8 pm only on Star Gold.

MUMBAI: "The direction in which education starts; a man will determine his future life." These are the famous words of the intellectual genius, Plato.

True to the famed words of Plato, it is very important for every student to get the right guidance to make a career choice based on their interest and aptitude. Keeping this in mind Star News, India‘s leading News Channel, undertook the second edition of the Star News Global Education Fair 2008 on 21st - 22nd June, 2008 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, which met with a thumping success yet again! This initiative has been launched with the objective to bring a range of career oriented education opportunities in India and Abroad for the benefit of Indian students, guardians and young professionals.

The education fair engaged the visitors/students with quality education and training opportunities in various vocational streams like, Engineering, IT, Management, Finance, Fashion, etc. and provided a chance to interact with a large number of prestigious institutions under one roof. The fair witnessed the presence of around 65 exhibitors, including national and inter-national institutions such as, Amity University, Sharda Group of Institutions, University of York, U.K., Deakin University, Australia, etc. displayed their educational opportunities for the students. The show attracted more than 20,000 STAR News viewers and a huge turnout of students, guardians and young professional‘s seeking career counseling on various subjects like Study Abroad option, Education loans, Admissions, Enrollments, etc. The huge turnout was clearly reflective of the in-roads STAR News, India‘s leading News Channel, has succeeded in making into this hitherto print dominated segment.

Speaking on the last day of the education fair, Mr. Ashok Venkatramani, CEO, MCCS, said, "We are very pleased that the initiative has received such a good response. The basic purpose of organizing such a fair was to provide guidance to the youth of today who has great ambitions and drive but, is unclear on the route to fulfill their ambitions and the ideal career prospects. This is where this particular Star News initiative will help students and young professionals select the right career based on their interest and aptitude."

Star News Global Education Fair 2009 will cover even a wider spectrum of career avenues in more geographical areas.

MUMBAI: mjunction services limited, India‘s largest eCommerce company announced the re-launch of its content and conference division as mjunctionedge along with the launch of its premium industry magazines namely, ‘Steel Insights‘ and ‘Coal Insights‘ in Hindi language today. The launch was followed by unveiling of mjunction‘s corporate portal (www.mjunction.in) in Hindi language. The magazines and the corporate portal were unveiled jointly by Mr. P.S. Bhattacharya, Chairman, Coal India Limited and Mr. Viresh Oberoi, Managing Director, mjunction services limited.

The company‘s decision to launch the Hindi version of the magazines and the corporate portal was based on feedback it had been getting from its pan-India customer and subscribers base to incorporate a regional preference. While the primary aim of the regional versions of the magazines will be to reach out and engage to a larger segment of target audience who adhere to the coal and the steel industry within the Hindi speaking community in northern India and parts of western and eastern India, the launch of the corporate portal in Hindi will endeavour to position the portal from a mere transactional to a high-end information exchange platform.

Unveiling the Hindi edition of the magazines and the corporate portal, Mr. P.S. Bhattacharya, Chairman, Coal India Limited, said "Such initiative from mjunction will not only benefit the huge base of the buyers and sellers from the steel and coal industry but also act as a knowledge sharing platform between the stakeholders and contribute to the overall development of the coal and steel sector. It also creates a sense of responsibility in terms of efficiency and transparency from mjunction to all its users and ushers confidence in them for the eCommerce sector in India."

Addressing the conference, Mr. Viresh Oberoi, Managing Director, mjunction services limited, commented "The launch of these magazines in regional languages only strengthens our commitment of adding more value to our services. We are optimistic that such initiative will provide us with an opportunity to provide our share of knowledge about the industry back into the system and thereby enlarging the community that mjunction serves. High-end specialty reports catering to the steel and coal industry are also in the pipeline. This apart we have also planned several conferences from varied industry verticals like steel, coal, shipping, logistics and many more".

The Hindi language edition of the magazines will be an exact replica of its current English versions and will start with a print run of 1000 copies to start with and has a target of increasing the figure to 5000 copies by 2008 end. mjunctionedge also has firm plans to launch its ‘Insights" magazines in other regional languages like Bengali, Gujarati etc in the future.

mjunctionedge will focus strongly on becoming a leading knowledge exchange platform for its businesses in steel, coal and sourcing to educate and engage and thus enlarge its consumer base of mjunction facilitating its business objectives. mjunctionedge also plans to digitise the publications as its businesses and customer base grows beyond India.

The re-launch of the contents and conferences division is part of mjunction‘s "Vision 2008-13" through which the company plans to achieve five fold growth to Rs 50,000 crores in terms of transaction value. It closed FY 2008 with a transaction value of Rs 10,314 crores.

MUMBAI: Comeback of who?you might ask. Well, it‘s the come back of all the jodis who couldn‘t make it to the last rounds of this laughter rollercoaster ride. So here they were again??putting their best foot forward and the first one to do so were Juhi & VIP.They with their fundoooooo performance set the mood for the evening and won audience accolades including the judges. After this rib-tickling act came Sucheta-Salim as a retarded student and teacher duo?does this sound a little familiar; well not really except that Sucheta was trying to deal with a retarded school-going Salim who was constantly annoying her with his whiny complaints???but she finally found her way around the kid. Rajesh and Rajiv were two long lost dost while Rajesh is an America-returned surd; Rajiv is a true-blue Punjab da jat who meet over drinks only to realize that they were both actually waiting for someone else. Chitrashi and Rehman presented what they do best?.. fight between the long and short?. but they still look just as charismatic. Sayantani and Kuldeep also performed and what was the performance about??.take a wild guess? Wait let me bring this out???while Kuldeep dressed and performed as our nation‘s beloved bapu; yes Mahatma Gandhi himself??.Sayantaniwas?..Munnabhai?..and what were they talking about??.love and peace?.yes, can you believe it Kuldeep who walked out of Comedy Circus and Sayantani??..

talking about love and peace??but whatever said and done it was a moving performance. Talking about come back round did we not mention Akashdeep Saigal and Pervez Siddique yet. Oh boy!!!! There‘s was a show stealer??..ahh not quite going by there looks???.i mean both were dressed as beggars and looked quite horrible and so was their act going by the points they scored?..but it sure was different. What was there performance about? Akashdeep is a pampered beggar who is just not ready to give up on his luxury of living off what his partner begged and ya I am sure you must have guessed that it is Pervez; a frustrated beggar who did all the begging (earning). Wait a minute?..isn‘t something amiss? Sure it is?..we did not talk about our host and dost for Comedy Circus evenings??. Shute Sheth and Shana Shakeel?.well, talk what about them?..except that Shakeel was pestering Shruti with his witty humour??

All this and much more only on Comedy Circus 2 "Come back Special"??..