Hinduja TMT Ltd, (HTMT), the holding company in India for the group‘s information technology, media and telecommunications assets, has bagged a further order for its call center business.

The order involves handling billing related calls for a large telecom client based in the US and is to be initiated with 200 Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) with immediate effect, a company release states. The capacity would be scaled up to 600 CSRs by June. HTMT is already handling in-bound marketing calls for the same customer.

HTMT‘s customer is a $ 2 billion telecom company and is an integrated communication provider of telecommunication products and services across US and Europe. Queried as to why the name of the company was not mentioned, an HTMT representative said it was because there was a confidentiality clause built into the agreement.

In order to connect further with viewers Sony Entertainment Television has commenced online contests pertaining to Dhadkan and Hubahu.

Dhadkan launched on Monday and airs thrice a week through to Wednesday while Hubahu opens tomorrow airing Thursdays. The contests close on 21 February. Another feature is that surfers can download wallpapers, listen to the title track, watch promos and trailers.

Hubahu is a comedy about twins and mistaken identity. The channel has positioned it as a show that will break the monotony of the saas-bahu triangle stories. The channel looks at Hubahu as a truly fresh concept, with a storyline new to the tube. The twins have contrasting personalities. There are four questions for this with multiple options.

BBC has announced that Australian airline major Qantas will be showing a selection of its programmes on its flights. Programes will be sourced from BBC World which is the Beeb‘s 24-hour international news and information channel.

The programmes passengers will be able to enjoy include ‘Click Online‘ which scrutinises the latest developments on the Net as well as keeping viewers up to speed with latest technical advances, Hardtalk with host Tim Sebastian talking to eminent personalities from various spheres of life and Simpson‘s World.

Speaking on the agreement Channel manager BBC World Stephanie Davey made these remarks: "We are delighted to be able to offer Qantas travellers a handpicked selection of quality BBC World programming featuring topical interviews, and news analysis, relied upon by people all over the world. Never more so than in the current climate have business travellers represented such a high percentage of our core audience. So we are delighted to be able to keep them up to date and informed even when they are in the air."

BBC World claims to reach 192 million homes in 200 countries. It claims to be available to 800,000 hotel rooms all over the world.

With assembly elections to the some key states round the corner, Hindi general entertainment channel Sahara TV plans to provide comprehensive election coverage to its viewers. Branded as Chunav Sangram the programme will be a run-up to the elections followed by 24-hour live telecast on 24 February, 2002.
Elections are being held in the key states of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab as well as the new state of Uttaranchal (which was carved out of UP) and the northeastern state of Manipur. The time schedule of Chunav Sangram is as follows:

4 February to 23 February, 2002 ? 7 pm to 8 pm. 24 February, 2002 onwards ? live non-stop coverage from 8 am on.

Starting 4 February, Sahara TV will air an hour-long election analysis programme anchored by Vinod Dua and eminent psephologist Ashok Lahiri. To make a strong impact with these discussions, Sahara TV has roped in names like Ashwini Minna, Mahesh Bhatt, Tarun Tejpal, JS Malhotra, Vivek Bharati, Shankarsan Thakur and Purshottam Agarwal who will form an exclusive panel of analysts. Besides these, the programme will also have senior politicians joining the studio discussions from time to time.

The election special programme will take off with a benchmark projection poll indicating the likely positions of the parties in the forthcoming elections followed by a series of election related daily opinion polls.

The hour-long Chunav Sangram will also include an interesting segment offering on-the-spot election related investigative stories by Nalini Singh highlighting issues like corruption, misuse of official machinery, use of guns, nepotism etc?

Commenting on this initiative, Priya Raj, V-P (publicity, promotion & PR), Sahara TV said: "The election special programme Chunav Sangram reiterates Sahara TV?s commitment towards providing up-to-date and quality news coverage to our viewers. Chunav Sangram is a unique value added information package in today?s clutter of news. Our focus on precision and quality achieved with the help of the state-of-art technology, a large team of newsmen and leading experts with our own inimitable Vinod Dua - will help viewers make sense of the current political scenario helping them to make an informed decision during the forthcoming elections.

Sahara TV has made arrangements to provide 24-hour live telecast of these elections on 24 February involving 400 newsmen. Beginning from 8 am the programme will analyse the results in four states.

Sahara TV?s studios in Noida, New Delhi, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Dehradun and Imphal will be providing the necessary live inputs. Sahara TV will use its online VSAT connectivity to receive up-to-date election news from UP (Meerut, Agra, Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Allahabad, Bareily, Lucknow); Punjab (Chandigarh, Bhatinda, Amritsar, patiala), Uttaranchal (Dehradun, Nainital), Imphal and Delhi City Centre for the election coverage.