Indian Television News, TV Stars, TV Actress, TV Actor | TVJini

Bloomberg UTV, India’s premiere business news channel, unveiled ‘THE PITCH’ – India’s biggest Business Reality Show, at a mega press conference held in a city hotel today. The first of its kind show promising upto Rs. 5 Crore - the highest amount of money on Indian Television - was launched by Ronnie Screwvala, Chief Executive Officer of the UTV Group and renowned Actor Boman Irani who will host the show.

THE PITCH aims to identify, evaluate and encourage potential entrepreneurs who not only have the most deserving business ideas, but also possess the critical skills required to execute those ideas successfully. Following a nationwide call-for-entries, a jury comprising successful entrepreneurs like Vishal Gondal of Indiagames, Alok Kejriwal of Games2win and Satya Narayanan of Career Launcher will shortlist the top 30 business plans and their creators, who could make it to the show. Led by Sasha Mirchandani, the Mumbai Angels – the most respected angel investors in the country - will closely evaluate these 30 aspirants not only on the brilliance of their business pitches, but also on their individual excellence and identify the final 10 aspirants who will appear on THE PITCH.

Ronnie Screwvala and Boman Irani At The Launch of The Pitch

In this quest for excellence, Boman Irani will see the aspirants through the challenges thrown to them by some of India’s most prominent business leaders like Rahul Bajaj, Kishore Biyani, Naina Lal Kidwai, Karan Johar, N Damodaran among others, across diverse industries. Each week on a fresh episode, a business leader will design and assign business tasks to the participants. The tasks will be designed to challenge the aspirants on the most critical skills required to be a successful entrepreneur and by eliminating the weakest performer, narrow down to the most competent and deserving aspirant who goes on to receive the funding for their business from Mumbai Angels.

Speaking at the event Mr. Deepak Lamba – Business Head, Bloomberg UTV said, “Through this show, Bloomberg UTV continues to strengthen its commitment to make a difference to viewers’ lives. We encourage the spirit of entrepreneurship in the country. There is no dearth of ideas but the buck always stops at the funds and through this show we will provide not only the funds but also a direction to the winner and his idea.”

Host of the show and guide to the aspirants, Boman Irani said “I am excited to be a part of this show as I am truly convinced with the philosophy of promoting entrepreneurship. THE PITCH will not only identify the next big idea in India but will also help the winner see the light of day by offering them the funding to make the idea come alive. I am eagerly waiting to learn from these bright young sparks of emerging India and test myself over the challenges set by the stalwarts of India Inc. Maybe, revisit the entrepreneur in myself!”

Serial Entrepreneur and co-founder of Mumbai Angels, Sasha Mirchandani lauded the initiative of the channel. Commenting on what inspired the Mumbai Angels most towards the show, he said, “There are many efforts to identify great business ideas. The critical element of this show is its focus on the acumen and ability of the aspirant. Most great ideas perish for the want of the right execution. The aspirant who makes it to the end is a definite winner.”

THE PITCH is presented by M3M India Ltd. Upcoming young entrepreneur and Director of the company, Pankaj Bansal said, “This show helps us to live up to our credo of giving joy. We are happy to be associated with such a unique initiative that inspires every Indian to become an entrepreneur.”

It’s one of the most dangerous jobs on the planet, but animal adventurer, adrenaline junkie and venom expert, Donald Schultz is willing to risk his own life to do it. Whether harvesting venom from the fangs of deadly black mamba in South Africa, collecting deadly jelly fish tentacles off the remote coasts of Papua New Guinea, or bringing down a 400-pound wild African lion to get a blood sample, Donald is fearless in the worldwide pursuit of bio-specimens for research and potential new scientific discoveries.

Animal Planet premieres WILD RECON, a 10-part series on Friday, August 06, 2010 at 9 PM featuring Donald Schultz, who is willing to do a job no one else dares. With support from the world’s top veterinarians and animal researchers, he travels to remote and jeopardous locales to collect venom and rare DNA critical to cataloguing species and research that will one day save countless lives.

Announcing the series, Rahul Johri, senior vice president & general manager, India, Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific said, “Animal Planet’s Masters of the Jungle time band at 9 pm features exceptionally talented hosts who engage the viewers with their passion, knowledge and dedication towards animals.  The premiere series WILD RECON features adventurer John Schultz, who faces some of the Earth’s mightiest, deadliest and most fascinating creatures in their natural habitats.”

Whether harvesting venom from deadly black mambas in Mozambique, collecting lethal jellyfish tentacles off the remote coasts of Australia, chasing and relocating charging elephants in Sri Lanka, or bringing down a 600-pound wild African lion to get a blood sample in South Africa, Donald is fearless in the worldwide pursuit of bio-specimens for research and potential new scientific discoveries that he hopes will save lives. As Donald himself says, “This is not a stunt; this is my job.”

“The work I do on WILD RECON is literally my life’s work,” adds Donald. “I’ve been going on these adventurous missions for years and now the series spotlights the jeopardy that I enjoy in collecting these samples on behalf of the research community. I’ve dedicated my entire life to working with animals.”

Born and raised in South Africa, Donald was the youngest person ever to give venomous snake demonstrations at the world-famous Fitzsimons Snake Park. But catching, caring for and studying snakes were not enough. Now, Donald travels the globe tracking down dangerous creatures, all in the name of science. He uses his animal acumen and taste for adrenaline for a greater cause, risking his own life for research that may one day save the lives of animals and humans.

Hiking through thick jungle undergrowth, diving to depths of hundreds of feet to sample shark species or skydiving into hard-to-get-to habitats, Donald stops at nothing to complete his mission. In addition, his missions are a race against the clock as he must get his fragile samples out of the field and into the lab for the next stage of work to commence. With Donald’s help, researchers will hopefully unlock the mysteries of animal DNA, identify the blueprint for undiscovered anti-venom or even one day find a cure for a life-threatening disease.

Donald works closely with researchers at zoos, universities, laboratories, pharmaceutical companies and especially local governments and communities to assess their needs and identify what research could be critical to their ongoing studies.

In an exclusive interview to NDTV Profit, Chairman of Bharti Enterprises, Sunil Mittal hit out at what he called the irrational pricing of spectrum between older and newer players. He said older players are being asked to pay astronomical sums to renew 2 G licenses, while newer players are getting spectrum at 2002 prices. This he said will not only kill the telecom dream, but is unprecedented anywhere in the world.

Watch Sunil Bharti Mittal in conversation with Sreenivasan Jain on POWER OF ONE on Saturday 24th July 10 at 9:30 PM.

Enclosed are the excerpts from the interview:-

NDTV: The regulators say that when your license comes up for renewal, the first license is going to come in 2014 and that’s for the next 20 years. Again the spectrum which you are going to get 2G spectrum at, will be at 3G prices?

Sunil: I cannot live in a position where a license has been granted at 2008 at 1650 crs, and the license you will renew in 2010-11-12-13 whenever they come, will be at a price of 16,000 crs. You cannot run two licenses in the market, one at 1,600 and one at 16,000 crs. There’s no one in the world that can take this irrationality and survive. I am happy if the government is having a punitive regime in this industry, which I believe they should not but then let it be punitive for all, that’s all I would say.

NDTV: It’s not that the newer players who are coming in for the past couple of years are favoured? They are paying much less than the price you are paying.

Sunil: And we have heard enough on that. No they are paying much less; I paid this price in 2001. They are paying this in 2010. In actual term they are paying fraction of what I have paid. So, all I am saying is that this inconsistency must be exposed that we paid the same price 7-10 years back, the same price is paid by 6+7 new licenses. Now you are asking us to pay ten times more than that. It is inconsistent, you cannot have that.

NDTV: This could literally kill the big telecom dream in India if they carry on like this.

Sunil: Not only that, this is something unheard of that you will have two set of rules. That has never happened in any other industry and I am hoping that won’t happen here too.

Football fever is running wild! Catching on this football frenzy, Nick presents a story of dreams, friendship and football. Dreamkix is a brand new show based on a farmyard football team that does its best to be the best! This award winning story premieres on NICK, on 5th July and airs Monday to Friday at 6pm & 8pm - TV News.

Dreamkix revolves around a farmyard football team that does its best to join the greatest sporting event of all, “Dream League,” where the most powerful teams on the planet compete. Dreamkix is a fast paced football show packed with high energy and dramatic football moves that is bound to captivate the kids.

The protagonist Roy, builds a team that is originally made up of athletically challenged characters. However, once these teammates come together, they overcome their deficiencies, discover their own unique strengths and become heroes on the soccer field and winners in their daily lives. With the help of friendship, determination & team spirit, watch the underdogs take over the league!

Winner of many prestigious awards, this animation show is another exciting addition to Nick’s wide array of entertaining shows! Yet again, Nick keeps in tune with the current flavor of the season and brings to the kids a football show that they won’t be able to get enough of!

Catch ‘DreamKix, from 5th July, Monday to Friday at 6pm & 8pm, exclusively on Nick!

Vikram Bhatt’s ASA Productions has teamed up with Harbhajan Singh’s Television Production Company TRP (’The Right Picture’) to produce a dance reality show on television. Vikram Bhatt would be producing the dance reality show ‘Dance India Dance’ Season 2 on Zee TV along with Indian bowling ace Harbhajan Singh. Vikram Bhatt, the man behind this colossal abode of ASA Productions, expressed his pleasure on producing the show and his association with the production house TRP.

Vikram Bhatt and Harbhajan Singh

“I am very happy with the new project. Dance India Dance is a great show and since I have worked with Mithun Chakraborty, Geeta Kapur, Remo D’souza and Terrence Lewis earlier, it feels great to be associated with the same people again. Dance India Dance is a great show and co-producing it with Bhajji would be a good experience, Vikram said.

Harbhajan Singh too expressed his contentment on the union. “I am very pleased with this association. The season one of the show was a huge success and we hope the same for the second season too. The participants on the show are too good and they have taken the show to a unique level”.