Children‘s channel Nickelodeon may suffer from a lack of visibility in India but abroad its shows are growing in popularity. More proof of this is provided in the fact that the network has snagged six daytime Emmy nominations for shows like Blues Clues and Little Bill.

The 29th edition of the Daytime Emmy Awards will be held at New York‘s famous Madison Square Garden on 17 May. The awards given out by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, will be broadcast on CBS.

One of the nominations for Nickelodeon‘s Blues Clues was in the Pre- School Children‘s Series category. It goes up against PBS‘ Sesame Street. Little Bill has been nominated in the special class animated programme category.

In the Children‘s Series category, the Disney Channel, expected to launch in India soon, pops up with Even Stevens. Competition includes PBS‘ Reading Rainbow, Between the Lions and Zoom.

ABC‘s programme All My Children led the scorecard with 21 nominations. CBS took 55 nominations, while ABC and PBS had 49 each. The Showtime cable network and NBC got 17 and 11 nominations respectively. Syndicated programming combined for 38 nominations.

In the lead actress category Susan Flannery has been nominated for ‘The Bold and the Beautiful‘ which continues to air on Star World. Her competition includes Susan Lucci and Finola Hughes for All My Children, Colleen Zenk Pinter and Martha Byrne for As the World Turns.

Lead Actor sees Jack Scalia and Vincent Irizarry for All My Children along with Robert Newman for Guiding Light the longest running soap on the tube.

For Best Talk Show the nominees are The Rosie O‘Donnell Show, Live with Regis and Kelly, The View and The Montel Williams Show.

The Game Show category sees Hollywood Squares which used to air on Star World going up against Jeopardy!, The Price Is Right and Win Ben Stein‘s Money.

Constantly keep refurbishing formats as well as shows. That is the philosophy Narendra Morar, commissioning editor, BBC World, believes works today. And fitting well into this strategy is the latest India-specific programme launching on the channel - Dateline India.Dateline India launches Friday, 5 April and will be hosted by columnist Tavleen Singh. The weekly show fits into the same slot earlier occupied by Question Time India and will air every Friday at 10 pm.

The programme is weighted towards political issues and the format is that every week three journalists will be invited to debate and discuss the issues that have dominated the week. "Dateline India presents the viewer with topical, perceptive and sometimes controversial opinions and analysis on national issues," says Morar. "This new India-specific programme affirms BBC World‘s faith in the power, depth and understanding of Indian journalistic talent and makes the most of this to give viewers a better appreciation of current affairs and how it affects their lives."

Narendra Morar

While Dateline India will invite the top journalists in the country to participate, it will also serve as a platform to showcase journalistic talent that is normally outside the pale of most such shows, says Morar. It appears that he is hoping that Dateline India will offer more by way of opinionated debate than "the same old faces".

The success of the indigenously built Insat-3C launch is behind it. The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is now working full steam for the launch of its next multi-purpose third generation satellite Insat-3A from Kourou in French Guiana sometime in September or October.

The satellite is in advanced stages of integration at the Isro satellite centre in Bangalore, reports United News of India. Over the next few months the satellite will undergo a series of tests before being transported to the Arianespace spaceport in the South America.

Unlike Insat-3C which was purely a communications satellite, Insat-3A will also have a meteorological payload in addition to a dedicated transponder for search and rescue operations.