India: Small states or Big states?

India had 28 states, of which 3 states being recently added (in 2000), and now Telangana would be 29th state of India. And list of aspirant states is also long. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirant_states_of_India).
But have we achieved equal development for all states? Most of states have not achieved development even after 60 years of independence. Reason being availability of resources, key cities presence in that state. But main reason is number of representatives/ministers in centre (?). Besides language & cultural differences within the states have led to conflicts between states.

So... I think whole system of the states need to scrapped, all states of India needs to be dissolved. We should reorganise all districts in country into 8-10 major provinces. The provinces would NOT be based on languages/cultures, but it should be created such that every province would have enough resources (electricity, water, infrastructure, etc). All provinces should have equal representation at centre so that there is no unfair advantage to any particular region due to majority of representatives. Each province could have 1 or more official language which would be used in daily administration. Each province should have centre appointed administrator who has more powers (unlike Governor), who could run administration on behalf of centre, while elected members could form local government managing the province.

But after so many years, is it possible to change the borders? change the whole administration process? Or let India get divided into smaller states?

Marathi Movies on Zing Channel UK

ZEE has rebranded its free-to-Air music channel 'ZEE MUZIC' to ZING creating a niche channel catering music as well as non-music content. It included bollywood updates, interviews, events and movies.
From recent weeks, ZING is broadcasting Marathi Movies with English subtitles on weekends. It would be good opportunity for Marathi viewers to watch Marathi movies on FTA channel. Recently movie 'Matichay chuli' by Mahesh Manjrekar was telecast on ZING

Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2009 - Congress again

As predicted, Cong-NCP retained power in Maharashtra and Shivsena-BJP's dream to come to power has been shattered. Leaders from both parties now started blaiming (again) MNS to taking away vote share. They should have not done that considering that MNS contested on 100 odd seats while SS-BJP contested on all 288 seats. So still SS-BJP lost on seats on which MNS didn't contest.
Though defeat in Mumbai region was major setback to SS-BJP and MNS emerged winner in this region alongwith some seats in Pune and Nashik. It was overall defeat to SS-BJP alliance and they should accept it, and play responsible role as opposition party in Assembly.
Now about Congress, its wonder how they beat anti-incumbency factor (or was it vote divide of opposition), but result is they are winners and going to form govt for next 5 years (and public have lost rights to complain on electricity load-shedding, price rise, bad infrastructure and farmers suicide, and be ready for more bridges and roads named after ...).

पुढील मुख्यमंत्री मनोहर जोशी???

विक्रोळीत सोमवारी झालेल्या युतीच्या सभेत अचानक पाऊसधारा कोसळल्या. शिवसैनिकांनी नेत्यांच्या विचारांनी न्हाऊन निघण्यासाठी कोण्त्ताही व्यत्यय येऊ नये, यासाठी खास भगवी छत्री तयार ठेवली होती. यापैकीच एक भगवे छत्र शिवसेना नेते मनोहर जोशी यांच्या शिरावर ठेवण्यासाठी भाजपचे राज पुरोहित, सुभाष देसाई पुढे सरसावले. कदाचित महाराष्ट्रचे पुढील मुख्यमंत्री म्हणून जोशीसरांना भाजपाची मान्यता असे तर सुचवायचे नाही ना!
सौजन्य:- महाराष्ट्र टाइम्स

Dil Bole Hadippa - Rani is back!

YRF are ready with release of new film 'Dil Bole Hadippa'. This time YRF trying to cash in on India's fav topic - Cricket! Many films have released with cricket centric topic, and now YRF trying their hands on it.
Film has Rani Mukherjee who is making comeback, would be interesting to see how she performs, if film flops, it could be end for Rani.
But I guess film is banking on Shahid. Shahid perhaps tring to do Shahrukh in the film. He replaced Salman in Rajshri Films for Vivah, Shahrukh in Aziz Mirza film, and now if he bring success to YRF, he could replace Saif, Hritik & etc khans from YRF. Shahid is also proved his worth with hit films like 'Jab we Met' and more recent 'Kaminey'
Trailer of films from YRF's Youtube channel

Doordarshan plans DTT in India. Pvt channels may also be allowed on terrestrial

We in India are familiar and watched DD's analogue terrestrial channels (mostly DD1, DD News and regional channel time shared with DD1). But in 4-5 years we could enjoy more DD channels in Digital mode, and if permitted some private channels could also be seen on terrestrial transmitted as 'Digital Terrestrial Transmission' (DTT).

In India we are so far aware of Digital TV through satellite (DTH), where digital channels are carried over satellite signals and sent to customer’s home. In DTT similarly digital TV signals are carried over RF signals, but broadcasted from terrestrial transmitters over VHF/UHF frequencies. The standard commonly used for DTT is DVB-T which is widely adopted. Besides 8VSB for ATSC (used in North America) and ISDB-T (used in Japan & Brazil) are the standards used for DTT.

DTT would have advantage over analogue transmission. On the single frequency more digital channels can be transmitted. Audio/Video quality is better compared to analogue channels. DTT also has benefit of transmitting EPG and other active services.

But DTT channels cannot be received through conventional TV. We would need Set Top Box or TVs with built in digital tuner for DTT reception.

India has adopted DVB-T standard. Turning digital, will improve DD’s transmission strength to accommodate about 6-8 channels/transmitter. Interested private broadcaster could use the additional channels to offer paid TV services to nearly 120 million homes. They could also put up digital transmitters at their own cost on DD’s towers and add more channels to the bouquet

Doordarshan has already conducted trials of its digital terrestrial transmission services in Delhi. In 2006, the projected cost of migrating to digital had been estimated at Rs 3,531 crore by a Committee of Financial Restructuring of Prasar Bharati. Earlier, an expert group set up by the Prime Minister’s Office had set 2015 as the deadline to phase out analogue TV transmission completely. Prasar Bharti was to start DTT in 2010; the report of this group had, keeping the Commonwealth Games in mind, even coined a slogan ‘Digital Delhi by 2010’ for the Capital.

Reference: DD may go digital, open up for pvt broadcasters

ESPN enters UK

US broadcaster ESPN last night won a £90million contract to show 46 live Premier League games next season.
Espn, owned by Disney, picked up both packages which were put up for auction by the Premier League after they were taken away from Setanta.
And in a separate deal, they also won the rights to screen 23 games for three seasons from 2010 in what is a double blow for Sky.
Sky have long feared ESPN bidding for Premier League rights as the US giant represents a huge threat to their domestic dominance.
Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore said. "ESPN have a formidable worldwide reputation and I am sure we will enjoy a long and fruitful relationship."

So now SKY's dominance in UK's sport broadcast market could come to end after entry of strong player like ESPN. It would be good if ESPN could also get rights of other sporting event like Cricket of UK, so they could offer some refreshing broadcast for UK Cricket

Loksabha Election Results 2009 - My Analysis

The results of India's Loksabha Elections are out, and were beyond anybody's expectation, neither the party that won, nor the parties that lost. Cong has won with this large margin almost after 2 decades, this has almost brought Cong rule like it was after independence. All other parties like Left, SP, LJP, MNS and main opposition parties lost very badly.
Some of the reasons of the results could be:
1. Global Financial Situation: With the financial situations globally very bad, Indian may have felt, its better to play safe and country run by a party who is headed by a economist, who looked more liable then BJP's Advani who didn't came up with any strong solution for this. And with such financial situation, 3rd/4th etc front getting elected was never possible.
2. Terrorism: Terrorism could have been the reason to get current govt out of power, but the irresponsible statements by opposition parties may have lost the chance for them. Besides past record of BJP was not good to prove their point to tackle terrorism.
3. Leader: What ever number of persons aiming for post of PM, there were only 2 people capable for the post. Manmohan Singh & L K Advani. Singh though termed as weak PM by opposition parties, he had respect from public, besides he never let his image drop from minds of people, while Advani has changed his image several times. From hardliner to soft stance secular. But still people may not willing to accept the change of image of Advani causing low response to his party.
4. Leaders of 2nd rank: 2nd rank leaders from both Cong & BJP were fully involved in campaign. Cong used Rahul, Priyanka, Milind Deora, Sachin Pilot, J Schindia. Rahul may appear dumb at present, but his father & Grand-mother also had same reputation when they joined politics, but later became centre of power. Rahul could also become centre of power. On other BJP's 2nd rank leaders were never in sync. Spat between Rajnath & Arun Jaitley was well-known. Narendra Modi campaigned mostly, but may be his magic was not acceptable outside Gujarat. So Cong also scored on its 2nd rank leader's image.
5: Media Support: The credit of victory of Cong should also given to media. Major media groups constantly put news/articles against BJP, but never uttered any criticism towards Cong. Media project negative image of BJP heavily which may have resulted soft-minded voters turning their back to BJP.

What next: For Cong its celebration time, before they settle to form new cabinet. Now that it has majority it will not have problem of giving ministries to worthless people from their earlier alliance.
But for BJP, it would be tough time. BJP had crumbled completely after 2004 defeat. This defeat is even bigger. Although BJP operates in democratic manner, it needs central authority person heading (like Sonia for Cong) to keep control on 2nd rank leaders. Senior leaders like Advani should step down and party should strengthen 2nd rank leadership, for that party should lead by younger leaders with mass appeal. It should also create leadership at state level in most of states where it has to depend on alliance partners (who could not always be trusted, like BJD & JD(U) & perhaps Shivsena).

Its good that India gets stable govt for next 5 years, and lets hope India comes out of financial crisis strongly and continues to progress.

Test Cricket becoming extinct?

The sad news about test crciket is coming from most traditional cricketing nation - England, where for 2nd test between England & West Indies only 3000 tickets were sold in the stadium of 16000 capacity. Its contrasting to situation of T20 & IPL response. T20 is pulling crowd every where, and even IPL (India's domestic tournament) proving crowd puller in foreign nation (South Africa) after it was shifted there for security reasons. Even ICC getting aware of it by arranging T20 world cup immediately after 2 years where as ODI worldcup which is arranged after 4 years. But nothing is done for Test Cricket's revival.
Testing time at Riverside with tickets hard to sell

The full house is far from assured, especially for the first day’s play, for which only 3,000 tickets have been sold. At a ground with a capacity of just under 16,000, fewer than 30,000 seats have been sold for the match as a whole, around half of which are for the third day on Saturday. For the television cameramen charged with picking out densely populated areas of the ground, it could be a challenging few days.

Now it would be interesting how Ashes 2009 gets the response from the English public & viewers worldwide on Television. If Ashes also fails to make its mark, Test Cricket is soon on verge of being extinct...

Indians, please beware of AIR FRANCE if travelling abroad

I have heard from some of my friends who travel abroad about ill-treatment they received at Paris airport while flying by 'Air France'. But recent new (if true) has brought the the misbehaviour by Air France towards Indian travellers.
Indian passengers flying Air France ill-treated

Over 50 Indian passengers flying Air France had a "harrowing" time at Paris airport after their aircraft developed a technical problem and complained on reaching here that they were victims of "racial" profiling.
The passengers, who spent 28 hours in Paris, said they were confined to a lounge at the airport there from 10 pm on Saturday till 7 am the next morning and given "hardly any food and water".
The passengers, on their way to Mumbai from the US via Paris, said while the foreigners were taken to hotels shortly after their plane returned to the Paris airport due to apparent technical problem following a four-hour flight, they were taken to the lounge and given just a bottle of water and a sandwich.
Giving details of their "harrowing" time after landing late on Monday night, one of the travellers, Vineeta Sengupta said, "No foreigner would have been treated like the way we were treated. People were lying down on the floor over there (at a place at the airport) where immigration takes place".
Accusing Air France of "racial" profiling, a girl passenger said that the officials there even had threatened that they would be handed over to the police if they did not stop protesting.
Sengupta said the 53 to 54 Indian passengers were later "huddled out" of the airport on a "group visa", which the authorities could have provided "much earlier", and taken to a hotel.
No reason has officially been given for the delay.
The passengers, who were in transit and did not have a visa for Paris, said the flight--AF 218--took off from the French capital with 169 passengers and 12 crew on board but returned to the airport after just about four hours in flight.
"The sandwich was so bad that one could not eat it," complained one of the travellers. "We had to beg for water. There was no information, no facility to even ring up".
Sengupta said the pilot had initially aborted take off at Paris airport due to some "switch" trouble. After a two-hour wait, the plane took off but after four hours of flying, the captain announced that the aircraft was returning to Paris due to operational reasons, she said.
After going back to the airport, the officials claimed that the police was not giving visa although the other foreigners left for the hotels within half-an-hour of reaching there, the passengers said.

So next time if travelling to Europe/US or even Paris, please rethink about travelling by AIR FRANCE

Radio on DTH, will we get it in India?

Radio on DTH splits broadcasters

Should radio be a part of the direct-to-home (DTH) broadcasting bouquet? The question has the country's media industry sharply divided.
Though some DTH platforms offer radio (mainly state-owned All India Radio and satellite radio WorldSpace), the government is yet to take a decision on whether to allow such a service.
One of the issues raised by some media players is that FM radio licences are city or town specific, and that offering FM stations on DTH could be a violation of government norms.
Replying to a consultation paper floated by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on the matter, WorldSpace has said that carriage of radio channels as part of DTH TV service is well-accepted in most parts of the world, including the US, Europe and the Middle East. According to WorldSpace, radio channels that are approved by the competent authorities to offer national level services may be permitted to provide content to DTH operators in India.
FM radio player Entertainment Network India Ltd (ENIL) wants radio on the DTH platforms for greater reach. Unlike TV signals, radio requires lower bandwidth. "So, there won't be much additional burden on carrier capacity and on transponder bandwidth," ENIL has said.
On the other hand, Radio Mid-Day, another private FM radio player, has said that DTH service providers "cannot provide our Mumbai radio stations to their customers outside Mumbai." Also, any service by DTH "to provide our channels should be after taking our prior consent and after paying requisite fee," it said.
Dish TV, the first DTH operator, has said that DTH operators should not be allowed to provide radio channels as it may be a violation of the licensing conditions and uplinking/ downlinking guidelines. If DTH operators are allowed to offer radio stations, many government norms need to be reviewed and changed, Dish TV has said.
The Zee Turner Alliance, too, has opposed the idea. "DTH platform owners should not be permitted to carry radio channels as the licensing for the radio services is separate and distinct," it has said. It has argued permitting radio channels on DTH would result in infringing of territorial limits specified by the existing radio licences.
Other DTH service providers, including TataSky, Reliance Big TV, and Sun Direct, have however, stand in favour.
TataSky has stated that it is a common practice in many other countries to offer radio on DTH and even on cable. There is no conflict of business interest with an existing radio system as DTH is a paid service, it has said.
Reliance has compared this scenario with the telecom sector. "Like in the case of telecom service providers, which can provide mobile TV in addition to traditional voice and data, DTH operators can carry TV signals containing audio and video, and also audio signals of a radio channel," Reliance has argued.

I believe TRAI should provide satellite license to radio channels along with some regulation for the content. Also the radio channels should be asked to produce a seperate beam/signal for DTH targeting whole nation unlike Region/City specific which radio channels has. Lets see what happens.

Maharashtra gets it own Maharashtra Premier League

Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA)has launched its own T20 league Maharashtra Premier League (MPL). The format is same as IPL with 8 teams owned by 8 Companies. Teams named as Devgiri Emperors, Sinhgad Supremos, Sindhudurg Sailors, Torna Tigers, Panhala Panthers, Raigad Royals, Pratapgad Warriors and Shivneri Lions.
Pune’s very own MPL begins with a bang from today

Cricket and Music -- a heady combo, brought thousands of Puneites together to witness the launch of Maharashtra Premier League (MPL) at the S P College Ground on Sunday. Needless to say, the response was outstanding!

A joint venture between the Sakal Group and Maharashtra Cricket Association, the MPL kicks off on Monday. Sunday’s event served as a trailer to the excitement that people can experience all through the tournament till May 14.

Would this local cricket league find spectators would be interesting to know in future

Adobe Flash platform coming to televisions and set-top boxes

Adobe Flash platform coming to televisions and set-top boxes
Adobe's Flash to Come to TVs

Adobe’s Flash software will be built in to many of the microchips used inside television and digital boxes, enabling developers, broadcasters and content providers to make applications and software that deliver a rich web-browsing experience. It will allow people to check their emails, the weather and live travel updates through their TV set. Adobe says it expects the first generation of Flash-enabled devices to hit the market next year.

Several manufacturers, including Sony and Samsung, already make internet-enabled televisions capable of running small programs, known as “widgets” that give access to a variety of popular services. Television makers are keen to ensure that TVs are not usurped by computers as the centre of the digital home, and piping the internet and web-based TV services, such as BBC iPlayer and YouTube, directly in to the living room, is seen as crucial to this.

Adobe says it hopes the next-generation Flash-enabled devices will bring high-definition video streaming, interactive news tickers and quizzes to television viewers. It has signed content deals with movie rental service Netflix, Disney and the New York Times to create the first applications for the platform.

For this programme, the company has tied-up with Broadcom, Sigma Designs and MediaTek-all of whom are in the business of making system-on chips for set top boxes. The program will be incorporated on the chips made by these companies. This will throw open a hitherto untouched market for Adobe Flash, which has traditionally been restricted to PCs and of late, mobile phones. In fact, almost 98 percent of PCs have flash installed. As for mobile phones, the shipments of devices enabled with FlashLite support is expected to cross the 1 billion mark in 2009, according to data compiled by Strategy Analytics. The report adds that by 2010, it is expected to more than double and reach a staggering 2.5 billion! The digital TV market too is growing and is expected to clock a 12 percent growth year on year till 2012 - in the U.S., according to latest data.


Adobe says the first devices will be for the digital televisions and will be seen later this year. These will be followed by set top boxes with the SoC chips. Strangely, Adobe has not listed any TV manufacturers who have agreed to incorporate flash. Competition is already there for Abobe on the form of Microsoft - which has Flash rival Silverlight in its kitty. However, Silverlight does not have the market penetration of Flash which has rather become the de-facto standard for displaying rich web content.

Expect the first devices supporting the new Adobe platform by the second half of this year, in the U.S.

Videocon eyes one crore DTH subscribers; to start services on May 1

Videocon eyes one crore DTH subscribers; to start services on May 1
Diversified business house Videocon Group is making an ambitious foray into the direct-to-home services with plans to garner one crore subscribers in the next six years.

The group, which made an announcement of Rs 1,000 crore for the DTH venture earlier, made a soft launch of its 'Videocon D2H' services last evening in Macau in front of its 2,500 dealers, who where specially flown in there.

"The full commercial roll-out will start from May 1. In the first year, we are looking at 15 lakh subscribers and add similar number every year. The target is to have one crore subscribers in six years," Videocon Group Chairman Venugopal Dhoot told PTI.

He said the company is set for a mega roll out of its DTH services as the 2,500 dealers will have around 15,000 showroom across the country.

"That gives us an advantage. Besides, we will also be offering TVs with in-built set-top boxes (STBs), which no one in the market offers," Mr. Dhoot said.

He said over 40 engineers of the group spent nearly two years in developing the TV sets with in-built STBs.

The DTH services will leverage on Videocon's brand equity. "We had also unveiled a new brand logo for the group, which will be common for DTH, mobile services and the consumer durables segment," he said.

Asked about the pricing of its DTH offering, he said: "It will be competitively priced with those of the existing players. We will also have packages which are innovative and give customers value for money."

Senior Players, IPL and T20

First Laxman was sacked by Hyderabad T20 team, then Rahul Dravid was sent on Holiday and now Ganguly is not the captain of Kolkata team. Sachin is only senior player holding flag for senior players for IPL (although he would never play T20 for India).
But looking at above events, it looks like senior players are sidelined in the 'commercial' version of the game. Actually senior players were not anybody's choice from day 1 of IPL when auction began. Some were perhaps just lucky to get icon status and get into team.
So now what's future for these players in IPL? I guess they should better ignore IPL and concentrate on national (?) service of the game, and let the IPL for young generations and aspirant players who never get chance to showcase their talents.

HD era begins on Indian Television - Sun Direct HD Launched

After launch of DTH (Direct to Home) TV via satellite few years back, Indian television has come long way from 1 operator to 6 operators. As number of operators increased, the competition increased resulting need to operators to provide something new. BIG TV came with bunch of PPV movie channel catering various genre of movies. Airtel's DIGITAL TV provided 'Worldspace' Radio.
Now SUN DIRECT, the DTH service from SUN Group (India) and Astro Group (Malaysia) have launched HD service. Initially it will have 2 movie channels in Tamil & Telgu, while Hindi movie channel would be added soon. It is also expecting HD content from FOX, Warner Bros who have recently began their services in India. Then Common wealth games 2010 in HD would also made available.

Targeted initially at a niche set of TV viewers, Sun Direct’s HD services will begin with two channels–one each for Tamil movies and Telugu movies–at a cost of Rs 10,000 per subscription, before the company’s plans of eight channels are put in place.
It has entered into an arrangement with Korean chaebol Samsung to supply the set-top-boxes required for the HD services.
While various international channels and content providers have queued up to obtain permission for HD broadcast in India, it is the Commonwealth Games 2010 that will flag off the HDTV wave in the country, as the mega event is set to be telecast on the HDTV platform, Sun Direct officials said.
Stating that HDTV was a growing market D’Silva said, “In this coming year at least 20% of the 1.5 million LCDs sold will be of the HD format. We look to capture approximately 20% of this market in 2009-10… So we have a target of around 60,000-70,000 subscribers for the first year.”
Having lined up global channels like Fox International and Warner Brothers to be telecast on its service, Sun Direct looks to capture 40-45% of the DTH market this fiscal, up from its present 30% share. Towards this end the company has earmarked Rs 150 crore as marketing budget.

SUN DIRECT HD website
Sun Direct launches HD services in India - Televisionpoint.com
Sun Direct ushers in high definition TV viewing - Times of India

Madness of Reality TV !!??

Rakhi Sawant to marry on national television

In a unique, first of its kind experience on television, NDTV Imagine presents a new reality show that traces the journey of a bride-to-be, from selecting her groom to the marriage ceremony, all captured on television. In a move that is true to her expressive personality, the bride-in-waiting Rakhi Sawant has chosen to search for her real life-partner on Imagine’s new reality show Rakhi Ka Swayamvar . Rakhi is taking matters of the heart into her own hands with a nationwide search for her perfect husband along with the support of the audiences. After exhaustive challenges and eliminations, Rakhi will take the saath-pheras with her husband in a grand ceremony that will be a fitting finale to this unique journey, and everyone is invited.

Where is reality TV going in India!

गारवा... (Garavaa Marathi Song)

ऊन जरा जास्त आहे... दर वर्षी वाटतं...
भर ऊन्हात पाऊस घेऊन... आभाळ मनात दाटतं...
तरी पावलं चालत राहतात... मन चालत नाही...
घामाशिवाय शरीरामध्ये कुणीच बोलत नाही...
तितक्यात कुठून एक ढग सुर्यासमोर येतो...
ऊन्हामधला काही भाग पंखांखाली घेतो...
वारा उनाड मुलासारखा सैरावैरा पळत राहतो...
पानांफुला झाडांवरती छपरांवरती चडून पाहतो...
दुपार टळून संध्याकाळचा सुरू होतो पुन्हा खेळ...
ऊन्हामागुन चालत येते गारगार कातरवेळ...
चक्क डोळ्यांसमोर ऋतू कुस बदलून घेतो...
पावसाआधी ढगांमध्ये... कुठून गारवा येतो...

Politics Direct-To-Home

http://www.indiantelevision.com/mam/headlines/y2k9/apr/aprmam9.php

Political advertising money has started moving to the DTH sector. Dish TV and Tata Sky have firmed up ad deals with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and are in talks with other political parties, including the Congress, as India goes to the Lok Sabha polls this month.
The BJP has committed Rs 1.5 million to Dish TV, which has a subscriber base of close to five million. Tata Sky, however, did not disclose the ad money it would get from the BJP.
“We have signed up with BJP for Rs 1.5 million and will be running their ads for a period of four weeks. We are also in talk with other parties,” Dish TV MD Jawahar Goel tells Indiantelevision.com.
Starting today, Dish TV will have ad spots running on its default landing interactive channel no. 999 and branding on its News Active and Bhakti Active services.
“We have developed this platform as a specialized media for advertisers. As the elections are coming, this is a good opportunity for national political parties like BJP and others to reach out to the 25 million viewers that Dish TV has,” says Goel.

So now politicians have understood the power of DTH TV services. BJP as always trying to have hands on all available mediums to reach out to public, has now joined hands with leading DTH operators TATASKY & DISH TV. Congress too can't ignore the power of this new medium and has joined DTH operators.
Now after elections are over, lets hope any of these parties look into reforms in DTH about pricing, channel packages and other issues faced by DTH customers.

STAR PLAYER

Now don't worry if you miss any of your favourite serial on STAR channels. STAR has launched its online Video site STAR PLAYER (www.startv.in). So now you can catch all episodes on STAR channels on STAR PLAYER.
This concept is very popular abroad, in UK BBC & SKY has its video applications BBC iPlayer & SKY Player respectively, but now Indian channels have also started online war, because STAR is not the first to launch Video site, it was NDTV who launched first video site www.tubaah.com

Nilu Phule at his best

Nilu Phule at his best, scene from Marathi movie "Saatchya Aat Gharat"

IPL 2009 Saga

IPL 2008 had created a history and many around world had looking IPL 2009 to set a new records of popularity and income. All was fine until the Goa auction. But after that many events happened which has put question on future of 2nd season of IPL
Security issue:
After the attack on Sri Lankan players the scene changed drastically. First home minister of India refused to provide security to games due to General elections. Many revised schedules were sent by IPL, major venues were dropped but still every day some state govt coming out with denial to games. It is causing worries to organisers.
The out come of the securiy issue is games are moved to many new venue like Dharmshala in HP, Nagpur and Chattisgarh. Rumours are also around that games could be shifted out of India, with South Africa being favourite. (Although SA board has denied it)

Broadcast issue:
Apart from security problems to the games, broadcast rights issue is another headache to IPL. After hugely gaining from IPL telecast 2008, the broadcaster SONY have roped in many sponsors, of which 1 was DTH operator AIRTEL. But this sponsorship deal was not acceptable to BCCI/IPL's official sponsor BIG TV (Reliance ADAG group). Hence BIG TV pulled out of sponsorship deal causing huge financial loss to BCCI. Due to this agitated BCCI cancelled the telecast rights to SONY and awarded the complete telecast rights WSG group. SONY has moved to court to stop the new deal. Then story continued of out of court settlement between IPL & SONY which also reportedly failed. Meanwhile WSG started looking for telecast channels as it doesn't have any channel in India. Again the channels SONY, ESPN-STAR & NDTV (surprise!) are in race for telecast rights.
It would be interesting to know who finally broadcasts the mega event (if it happens).

All eyes would be on Lalit Modi on Sunday (22 March) to know what is future of IPL 2009.

Above information is based on various media reports.

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena's website

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena has launched website - its URL is www.manase.org

Marathi Cinema - in the changing phase

Marathi Cinema has gone through various changing phase. From Village based stories in 60s/70s to comedy wave in 80s/90s. But at the end of 90s the Marathi cinema was completely struggling for its identity having competition from bollywood, Theatre and growing TV channels.
But after entry of new minded producers and directors, the cinema has entered another phase of change. First the nomination of 'Shwaas' (Breath) for India's entry to Oscars gave recognition. Then many old and new producers started looking and making Marathi movies with new view. Gone are days when movies quality was so dull that anybody hardly willing to watch. Now movies are produced with excellent video and sound. Many new topics are approached. Movies 'Tingya', 'Valu', 'De Dhakka' though being from rural background were well received by urban audience. At the same time movies which could attract youth and urban population are being produced. ZEE became 1st corporate to enter movie production along with launch of movie channel in Marathi. Now many popular production house like Mukta Arts, ABCL, BIG Entertainment, are willing to invest in Marathi movies.
I personally seen so many Marathi movies in 1 year that I haven't seen in last 5-6 years. Hope this golden period continues and we get more good & quality movies in Marathi.
For latest on Marathi Movies - http://www.marathimovieworld.com/index.php
Reference - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathi_cinema

Poor Umpiring - Has LBW rule changed for Tendulkar?

http://cricketnext.in.com/news/umpiring-howler-accounts-for-tendulkar-yet-again/37948-13.html

For the third time in a row, Sachin Tendulkar was on Tuesday done in by
poor umpiring in the current one-day series against Sri Lanka, being declared
leg before wicket in yet another dubious decision.
Tendulkar was declared
leg-before in the first ODI in Dambulla when the ball was clearly pitched
outside the leg stump, he fell LBW against in the second ODI when the ball was
missing the leg stump and was again ruled leg-before by Sri Lankan umpire Gamini
Silva on Tuesday when the ball was going down the leg side by an even wider
margin.
The three umpiring errors have meant that Tendulkar has made scores
of 5, 6 and 7 in the series so far.
True to his character, Tendulkar has not
shown any dissent although his disappointment was palpable.

Although Sachin is not showing any dissent towards wrong decisions, ICC/BCCI should act to put check on such poor umpiring decisions which is hurting and frustrating Sachin's fans. In the times when we have so many technical advancements, still why cricketers are facing wrong decisions?Or are umpiring proving their greatness by declaring Sachin out? (as per article in Maharashtra Times)