MUMBAI: India TV has announced its first "Yuva Awards", an award event that will honour the "most promising" young faces of the nation.

Positioned as an aspirational salute to yuva (youth) icons who have shown leadership and extraordinary excellence in respective fields with achievements much bigger than their age.

The awards will be given away in six categories: Politics, Sports, Music, Film, Television and Business.

The honorees for the inaugural annual property by India TV will be decided through a process that involves the tabulation and stratified research by an international research agency and India TV viewers? votes and the diligent deliberations by the Jury.

The jury will be chaired by Sarod Maestro Ustaad Amjad Ali Khan. The panel comprises of personalities like Kapil Dev, Vandana Luthra and Pushpesh Pant. India TV chairman and editor in chief Rajat Sharma will also be part of the Jury.

India TV MD and CEO Ritu Dhawan said, "Yuva awards is a humble attempt to inspire iconic potential of Young Indians who will take our nation to newer heights. These youth icons will be those who have already displayed enormous potential and made it big at their young age. They have created benchmarks in their respective fields and brought pride to our nation."

The winners of the awards will announced at an awards ceremony at the Taj Palace, New Delhi on the 18 of February and the show will be telecasted live on India TV.

The awards have Real Estate Company Prateek Group as principle sponsor and Galgotias University as associate.

MUMBAI: US broadcaster NBC has picked up the fourth and fifth cycles of the music competition series ?The Voice? for next year, it was announced by NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt.

He said, "This pickup will assure the many dedicated ?Voice? fans that this innovative show will continue to bring some of the most talented new voices to the world?s attention through all of next year. With the addition of Usher and Shakira as rotating coaches to join Christina, CeeLo, Adam and Blake in the next cycle, we know that this incredibly addictive program will remain even more relevant as we move forward through this exciting season. My hat is off to John de Mol, Mark Burnett, and everyone who produces this classy and highly entertaining show for us."

Last week - one week after its season premiere ?The Voice? introduced music superstars Usher and Shakira as two new celebrity musician coaches when it returns next spring for its fourth cycle. Christina Aguilera, who is releasing a new album and going on tour, and CeeLo Green, who is developing new music plus a scripted comedy series for NBC based on his life, will take the Spring 2013 cycle off.

Current celebrity musician coaches Adam Levine and Blake Shelton will remain with the series through the fourth cycle.

"The Voice" returned with the strongest vocalists from across the country invited to compete in the blockbuster vocal competition show?s third season. Celebrity musician coaches Christina Aguilera, CeeLo Green, Adam Levine and Blake Shelton return along with Carson Daly as host and Christina Milian as Social Media Correspondent.

"The Voice" artists who have gone on to sign record deals include Season One artists Javier Colon, Xenia, Dia Frampton and Vicci Martinez, as well as Season Two artists Jermaine Paul, Juliet Sims and Tony Lucca.

The show?s format features four stages of competition: the first begins with the blind audition, then the battle round, the brand new knockouts and finally, the live performance shows.

During the blind auditions, the decisions from the musician coaches are based solely on voice and not on looks. The coaches hear the artists perform, but they don?t get to see them -- thanks to rotating chairs. If a coach is impressed by the artist?s voice, he/she pushes a button to select the artist for his/her team. At this point, the coach?s chair will swivel so that he/she can face the artist he/she has selected. If more than one coach pushes their button, the power then shifts to the artist to choose which coach they want to work with. If no coach pushes their button, the artist is eliminated from the competition.

Once the teams are set, the battle is on. Coaches will dedicate themselves to developing their team of artists, giving them advice, and sharing the secrets of their success along with the help from their celebrity advisers. During the battle rounds the coaches will pit two of their own team members against each other to sing the same song together in front of a studio audience.

After the vocal battle, the coach must choose which of his/her singers will advance to the next round of competition, while the losing artist is available to be stolen by another coach. Each coach has two steals during the battle rounds.

At the end of the battles, only the strongest members of each coach?s roster remain and proceed to the new knockout rounds. The artists will be paired again with a member of their team, but this time they find out only minutes before performing who they are being compared against. The artists each select their own song to perform individually, while their direct competitor watches and waits. They are vying for their coach?s confidence and decision to take them to the live shows. Their coach will choose the winner and the artist not selected will be sent home.

In the final live performance phase of the competition, the top artists from each team will compete each week against each other during a live broadcast. The television audience will vote to save their favorite artists and the two artists with the lowest number of votes will be sent home each week. In the end, one will be named ?The Voice? and will receive the grand prize of a recording contract.

Mumbai: Dainik Bhaskar has tied up with Time Magazine and Harvard Business Review (management magazine) to provide their content to its readers on a regular basis.

The "exclusive" content will feature in the Sunday edition of the Hindi-language newspaper.

The daily newspaper has completely revamped its Sunday edition content with a focus on management lessons to be applied in day to day life.

"It will contain wide spectrum of topics like health, fitness, career, self help, money management, politics, education, music, lifestyle, environment, good reads through columns by experts of the respective fields," the company said.

Additionally, Dainik shall also provide a separate segment devoted to women. Also there will be a Sunday Jacket, above the regular front page of the newspaper which will carry exclusive news analysis and ground reports.

Dainik Bhaskar group VP Sanjeev Kotnala said, "Our strategy revolves around being ahead of the curve. And hence the desire to enrich the reading experience and making it that much of joy - is our focus that directs us in our newspaper design. So, in addition to above changes, we do expect that the readers will appreciate the exclusive cartoons and photographs- that will not only bring smile to their faces but also help them focus and think."
 

MUMBAI: The high-definition (HD) Bollywood music channel, MTunes HD, has launched a new time band for non-Hindi music - Alter Native.

Alter Native will feature regional and non-Hindi music on the channel. With this, the channel aims to bring to screen the songs that have attained a cult following in their respective regions and countries.

Pioneer Channel Factory CEO Saravanan P said, "MTunes HD is committed to continuously innovate to bring the best content for the viewer. Alter Native is a manifestation of the extensive viewer research we continuously engage in. I am very confident that just like our previous offerings, Alter Native will also find appointment viewing with our audience."

The property is aimed at both the Hindi speaking audience who wishes to experience music from around the globe as well as the considerable regional diaspora in the Hindi speaking markets who will get to experience the music from their regions.

MTunes HD programming head Cyril D?Abreo added, "With Alter Native, the viewers will get to experience music that cuts across the language barrier. The songs have been selected from an extensive library of songs spread across major languages and are definitely to be a rage with Hindi viewers too."

MUMBAI: Discovery Science is launching a five part series, Deconstructed starting on 2 January next year.

The show will air every Monday at 9 pm.

Deconstructed will break everything down to the bare basics. The series will uncover the hidden components and reveal how things work.

It will carry out an animated expedition into the interiors of the machinery to reveal the complex world of gears, pistons, and pipes. The series will dissect routine objects to explain their functioning in an uncomplicated manner, from shedding light on bulbs and detailing the science behind the humble toaster to how a computer?s hard disk stores all photos, movies and music.

MUMBAI: In a bid to attract foreign investments, the Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) has simplified its industry funding schemes from 46 to five.

The MDA Grant Schemes, which seek to position the media industry for the future, are a result of a series of consultations with the industry from the start of the year.

The Schemes also seek to meet the evolving needs of the industry at five key stages of growth from ideation, production, marketing, talent up-skilling to enterprise development.

The MDA Grant Schemes are applicable to all seven sectors of the media industry: Broadcast, Animation, Film, Music, Interactive Media, Games and Publishing.

Funding is in the form of grants, which encourages media companies and individuals to own and more fully capitalise on the Intellectual Property of their product, service or solution, and to do so across different media platforms as well.

A total of S$88m has been set aside for the five schemes. Existing projects under the 46 schemes will continue to be serviced to completion.