• UTV Inks $14m Production Deal With 2 Hollywood Cos
• Lion Counts Climb to 9 at Canes
• 2 Indian Enterprises Win Green Oscars
• MRPL Bags Award For Lowest Energy Consumption

• Indian Creativity Rides The Wave at Cannens
• Frost & Sullivan CEO of The Year Award For Sunil Mittal
• Indian Travel Industry Goes on M$A Jaunt

Entertainment company UTV has inked co-production deals worth $14m with two Hollywood animation production houses, Porchlight Animation and Mike Young Productions. The deals envisage making an animated feature film and 3D animation TV series. The investment will be funded from internal accruals. UTV COO Ronald D'mello told ET that the company would co-produce its first Hollywood animated feature film titled Jay Jay's Race Around The World with Porchlight Animation. "We will do pre-production and marketing for the series for an estimated $10m, which is being made for the international audience," he said. The movie which is based on a pre-school series Jay Jay The Jet Plane is slated to be released by the end of '07. The other deal is with the Los Angeles-based Taffy Entertainment and Method Film France's distribution arm, Mike Young Productions. "We have tied up with them for a TV series titled Cosmic Quantum Ray. This is an animation services deal for 13 hours for an estimated $4m," he said. The deal will include making both direct to DVD titles and TV episodes in 3D animation. "We are already doing production work for animation projects but this would be a beginning of our effort to move up the value chain and be able to own the animation properties we produce," added Mr D'mello. Though both the projects are meant for the international audience, UTV is also aggressively looking at tapping opportunities for making animation movies for Indian audience. "We are aggressively looking for the right script and in the next 9-12 months we hope to make an animation movie with the Indian characters for the world-wide audience," he added.

Courtesy: The Economic Time, June 29, 2006

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Halfway into the Cannes festival, Indian creative and media agencies have raked in more Lions than it has ever done in its history. Indian advertising is on a high this year and there's a great deal of talk about chunks of global creative activity shifting focus to India in the next few years. The buzz around India globally seem to have made the market not only conducive for Indian success. Merit at Cannes was clearly the clinching factor but top advertising honchos and corporate India agree that Indian nominations are also riding the popularity wave. "We are all riding a wave for sure. But our talent is outstanding too. India's certainly got much more prominence today than before, we have judges there and much more representation than we did earlier. Lintas had won a lot of awards way back in 1983 at Cannes. I think every country goes through this popular wave, sometime it was France and later Spain and now its India. Of course, we have some of the best minds with us. I am very happy, with this recognition of talent," feels Indian creative guru, Alyque Padamsee. With four gold, three silver and five bronze gongs, India's tally of 12 Lions surpasses previous glory - some of the most talked about being JWT's Levi's Slim Jeans and O&M's 'Salon' for Perfetti's Mentos. Last year, JWT India won the first silver at Cannes for its campaign 'Give' for the Indian Red Cross in the fund-raising and appeals category and also Lion for 'Birds', a commercial created for A: Door which is a theatre in South Delhi, while Leo Burnett bagged a bronze for its Heinz commercial. "The fact that the international market is sitting up and looking forward to the Indian point of view is actually helping. No doubt, some of the ideas were great and had the cutting edge like Levi's or Kurkure. But it is a fact that the cross-ventilation and osmosis of ideas from India has made a great difference. Nobody has to push a great idea, today it is easily noticed," says Josy Paul, national creative director, David. The rise of this global creative economy changes the rules of international competition in four crucial ways. This time around 25 agencies joined hands to compile a book called 'Best of India' as a way of exhibiting the country's talent. With India on the international map international companies are coming to Mumbai to get their work done. "There have been serious discussions on using India as a creative production hub. I do not think that our creative talent's just riding a popularity wave. Our talent is great and markets are turning towards India for using the talent. What is significant is that it is not work to be done for Bangladesh, Thailand or Nepal, but for the developed markets," said Sameer Suneja, head marketing, Perfetti Van Melle India.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, June 26, 2006

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If Monday evening suggested that India was knocking on the doors of fame at Cannes, by Tuesday afternoon it was evident that Indian advertising had got off to a flier. Just two days-and five categories of judging-into the festival, and India has taken its tally of Lions to nine: two gold Lions, two silvers, four bronzes and one Promo Lion. Also, India has won a single nomination for the Cyber Lions - Tribal DDB's 'Chartbusters' entry for Times Jobs - taking the number of finalists from India to 59. And the Indian contingent is confident that the number will go up once the Press and Film winners are announced - there is a strong rumour that JWT will pick up a Press Gold for its Levi's Slim Jeans work. But so far, the two gold Lions won this year were in the Outdoor category, courtesy O&M's entry for Discovery Channel and Rediffusion's entry for Midland Bookshop - incidentally, Rediff has already claimed a silver Lion for the same client in Lions Direct. "This is wonderful news for Rediffusion and India," said KS Chakravarthy (Chax), NCD, Rediffusion DYR, speaking about the work for Midland. "I always knew this was a winner for the country. From the time I first saw it, I had complete faith in the work. It deserves every accolade it's got and I'm so happy." India added two bronze Lions in Outdoor through Leo Burnett's entry for Dinodia Photo Library and Everest's finalist for Cancer Patients Aid Association. And in Media, three of the six short listed entries from India claimed metal. While Leo Burnett won a silver Lion for Prerana, Madison Communications laid hands on two bronzes, one each for P&G and Cadbury. The Grand Prix Campaign in the Outdoor category was awarded to Fallon London for its work for Tate Britain. The campaign for Tate Britain edged past the work done by Whybin/TBWA Auckland for Adidas by a very narrow margin. "Arriving at a decision on the Grand Prix was tough as there were so many opinions on what communication should be like in the future," admitted Fernando Vega Olmos, outdoor jury president and president of Vegaolmosponce, Argentina. The Grand Prix in Media went to Universal McCann Sydney for the 'Lynx Airline' campaign for deodorant brand Lynx. (The Unilever brand is marketed under the Axe name in some markets). "We were looking for a matrix that gave proof of success in the market, and we were looking for campaigns that were extendable - where the idea could travel around the world, and maximized all possible touch-points very well," said media jury president and CEO of Starcom MediaVest, Renetta McCann. "We also wanted to award work that was interactive and involving - work that invited the consumer into the brand." At this juncture, Rediff, Burnett and Madison lead India's table with two Lions apiece, while O&M, JWT and Everest have one Lion each. With results from the two biggest categories, Press and Film, yet to be announced, there's a fair amount of confidence that India will end up with a record number of gongs.

Courtesy: Economic Times, June 21, 2006

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Bharti Airtel chairman and managing director Sunil Bharti Mittal has won the 'CEO of the year' at the Frost and Sullivan Asia-Pacific ICT 2006 awards. Mr Mittal has been given the award in the service provider category, a company release said here on Sunday. The award took into consideration his leadership, revenue growth of the company, market share retained and captured by the company and financial achievements it achieved in 2005, the release said. In addition, Bharti Airtel also bagged the Wireless Service Provider of the year award and the competitive service provider of the year award, it added.

Courtesy: Economic Times, June 19, 2006

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Indian enterprises have won two of the five Ashden Awards for sustainable energy for 2006, popularly known as the 'Green Oscars', and a cash prize of £30,000 each. The organisations which have won the award include Appropriate Technology Institute (AARTI), Pune, for the design of a revolutionary biogas system that generates gas for cooking from food waste and other sugary and starchy material. The other is International Development Enterprises of India (IDEI) which has been behind the manufacture and distribution of 510,000 treadle pumps - a simple device that uses human power to pump water from wells, streams and lakes up onto the fields allowing farmers to grow crops all year round. Besides, Vivekananda Kendra and Nardep, bagged the second prize of 10,000 pounds for making a series of advances to biogas designs which generate gas for cooking and developed effective ways of using slurry as a powerful fertilizer using a combination of new and traditional techniques. Lord May of Oxford, a former Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government and former Head of the UK Office of Science and Technology presented the awards to Anand Karve of AARTI and Amitabha Sadangi, Executive Director of IDEI at a largely attended function at the Royal Geographical Society in London on Thursday night. Prominent among those present on the occasion was David Cameron, MP, Chief of the Conservative Party. Receiving the award, Karve described it as a great honour conferred on his organisation. He said the potential user of the new biogas technology in Maharashtra are estimated to be 1.5 million households. So far, the Institute has covered about 8,000 of them. "The award money will be used for expanding our awareness generation campaign and the training programme for artisans," he said, adding that over the next two years "we hope to reach more than 25,000 urban households." Sadangi said the Ashden Awards "are a reflection of the world we would like it to be. It is easy to feel despair every time we read about tragedies in the poorest parts of the world. But when I look at the finalists of Ashden Awards and their work, I see hope. "IDE, India, will use this award money to introduce Treadle Pump in Chattisgarh, one of the backward states in India. Treadle Pumps will help people to increase productivity and reduce poverty."

Courtesy: Hindustan Times, June 16, 2006

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The Indian travel & tourism industry is getting into M&A mode. Kuoni India, one of the biggest travel companies in India, has acquired a Delhi-based destinations management company, Distant Frontiers, while Thomas Cook is scouting for 3-4 deals in the domestic travel space. TUI, a global travel major which entered India last year, strengthened its presence by picking up Select Vacations, an outbound travel firm, earlier this year. Deal makers for private equity and VC funds are also taking a keen interest in the Indian travel space, especially in the online domain. Though Kuoni executives were not willing to comment on the deal, sources said the latest acquisition will help attract niche tourists from Europe for medical tourism, eco-tourism and specialised incentive tours and conferences. In '01, Kuoni had bought out another destination management company, Tour Club, with a strong presence in the Middle East. Kuoni India's destination management division operates under the umbrella brand name SITA and currently manages around 1,50,000 tourists. Last year Kuoni Travel Holding's group CEO Armin Meier had told ET that the company is interested in acquiring brands and products in the space of soft adventure as part of its inorganic growth strategy in India. Thomas Cook India MD Madhavan Menon said the company is scouting for acquisition opportunities in the foreign exchange and travel-related services space. Last year two key global players, Germany's TUI and Australia's Flight Centre entered the Indian travel space after acquiring Le Passage to India and Friends Globe, respectively. TUI followed this up by buying out Select Vacations, a boutique outbound travel company, earlier this year. Over the past year, the online travel space has seen a fair share of action with entry of players like Makemytrip and Travelguru, backed by VC funding. Earlier this year, Promod Haque of Norwest Venture Partners, a US-based venture capital firm, invested in Yatra, a click-cum-brick travel platform targeting the domestic traveller. As low-cost carriers gather critical mass in terms of passenger movement, online buying and selling of air tickets and other travel solutions is giving a fillip to domestic travel. India's inbound travel figures have been growing by around 14% annually and stood at 3.9m in '05. Outbound travel by Indians has clipped ahead at a much faster rate ranging between 20-25%, with nearly 6.5m travelling abroad last year. However most travel companies are now gearing up to tap the potential of domestic travel, with an estimated 400m travelling within the country each year, with the numbers growing by over 20% annually.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, June 08, 2006

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Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), a subsidiary of ONGC, has bagged the Jawaharlal Nehru Centenary award for the lowest energy consumption amongst PSU refineries during 2004-05. The awards are based on the annual performance of the refineries in the area of energy consumption, measured in terms of Specific energy consumption. It has also got the Gold award by Greentech Foundation for outstanding achievement in safety management for the same year and a Gold award from the Department of Industries and Commerce, Government of Karnataka, for registering highest revenue earnings through export during 2004-05. It has also bagged the Environment Excellence award from Greentech Foundation and the Golden Peackock Environment Management award for the same period. Meanwhile, MRPL's Board has approved the refinery upgradation project to enhance the capacity to 15 MMTPA from the present 9.69 MMTPA. The board has also given a go ahead to the comnpany's plan of setting up an Aromatic and Olefin complex at the Mangalore SEZ.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, June 03, 2006

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