MUMBAI: News media company NDTV and real estate company Nirmal Lifestyle have returned with the second season of Marks for Sports campaign, which aims to create awareness about the importance of sports in a child?s life.

To give the campaign a boost, the parties have announced a Fittest City contest involving six cities namely Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Bangalore and Hyderabad. The aim is to see which city has the maximum number of people to cross the fitness threshold.

Nirmal Lifestyle chairman & MD Dharmesh Jain said that the aim of the contest is to spread the fitness message. The contest has various parameters like physical camps, surveys on health habits, government statistics and testing the fitness level of children.

?Our aim is to change the way India thinks about fitness. We already have tie ups for homes with companies like Discovery, US Open. But we wanted to extend our association with sport to beyond complexes. Therefore we entered into a 10 year agreement with NDTV for Marks for Sports," Jain said.

The contest will see each city having its own ambassador from the world?s of sport and Bollywood. Bipasha Basu is the city ambassador for Mumbai, Virendra Sehwag for Delhi while Ranbir Kapoor continues to be the national brand ambassador for the Marks For Sports compaign.

Jain said that the company sought the expertise of IAAF to find out why India wasn?t faring better at the Olympics.

Research showed that children in foreign countries like US start taking sports seriously between the ages of 12-15 while in India, children stop taking part in sports once they reach that age.

"Therefore it was important to introduce sports in a school?s curriculum. Our aim is to make the fittest city contest an annual feature," Jain contended.

NDTV will be supporting the initiative through televised debates. Besides, Nirmal will also organise sports events and an online campaign to create awareness about the contest.

NEW DELHI: NDTV and Wisden India today announced a strategic partnership across all platforms including TV, web and mobile and on-ground events to give access to content from Wisden.

The partnership will be cross platform and will create and promote long-term assets through television programming, on ground activities and digital properties. These properties will include a co-branded cricket app, which will host the blend of stats and content.

NDTV will also work with Wisden India to create the Indian edition of the Wisden Cricket Awards, the most coveted awards in the cricketing world.

Fidelis World Executive Chairman and Wisden India chairman Anand S Krishnan said, "We are indeed ecstatic, and look forward to this association with NDTV. FidelisWorld and Wisden India believe in the best, and we could not have gotten a better partner. This alliance between two great brands will result in the kind of exciting products that, until today, cricket fans could only imagine."

Fidelis is a sports, media and entertainment company.

NDTV Group CEO Vikram Chandra said, ?At NDTV we are always looking to push the envelope with regards to premium and credible content. This partnership with Wisden India will allow us to give our viewers innovative products, credible statistics and a complete picture of Indian and world cricket like never before. We look forward to joint events, launches and other digital initiatives as a part of this partnership."