Tag: thesamikhsya

Kangana Ranaut starrer ‘Manikarnika:The Queen of Jhansi’ witnessed an excellent weekday trending on the box office, with a total collection of Rs 56.90 crore, trade sources said on Thursday.
”Kangana’s biggest opener ‘Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi’ performed best in Delhi, NCR, UP, Punjab and Rajasthan,” the sources said.
”The movie earned Rs 8.75 crore on Friday, Rs 18.10 crore on Saturday, Rs 15.70 crore on Sunday, Rs 5.10 crore on Monday, Rs 4.75 crore on Tuesday and Rs 4.50 crore on Wednesday, pushing the total to Rs 56.90 crore,” sources added.
‘Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi’ is an epic biographical period drama based on the life of the Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi.
It is directed by Krish and Kangana Ranaut and produced by Zee Studios in association with Kamal Jain and Nishant Pitti.
The film stars Kangana Ranaut in the titular role.
A special screening of the film was organised by Zee Entertainment for President Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhavan, Cultural Centre on January 18.
The film was released on 3700 screens in 50 countries worldwide in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.
The flick released on January 25, and is running successfully on the box office.(UNI)

(UNI) Hindon Air Force Airport will start operating flights commercially from March this year.
Construction work of the Hindon airport would be completed by end of February and after that it would start its first commercial flight under the regional air connectivity scheme UDAN, a government official said on Wednesday.
After the airport would start functioning, an 80-seater aircraft would fly from Hindon to Pithoragarh, jaisalmer, Gorakhpur, Allahabad and Hubli.
The airport, constructed by the Airports Authority of India, would be able to handle aircraft which has 80 seats only, the official added.
The official said Spicejet was allotted the proposal to start services from the airport. Beside this, IndiGo has shown its interest to start its services as soon as the airport gets ready.
Hindon Airport was included in the second chapter of UDAN in order to connect small and medium towns through air network.

The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design formally presented the fourth annual Carnot Prize to Union Railways and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday here.

The Minister has decided that the award money of dollar 25,000, which he will receive as part of the 2018 Carnot Prize, will be donated to the International Solar Alliance to institute the Diwakar Award. The Diwakar award will recognise, every year, an outstanding organisation that has been working for special children and maximising the use of solar energy.

Mr Goyal had previously been unable to accept the award in the United States of America, due to the unfortunate train tragedy that took place in Amritsar.

The award recognises the pathbreaking transformations in India’s energy sector under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The efforts of Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas, and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, and RK Singh, Minister for Power, and New and Renewable Energy will further bolster India’s commitment towards mitigating climate change and provide energy security to the 125 crore people of the nation.

Mr Goyal had stated that “it is both a personal honour as well as a tribute to the efforts of all involved in this great work throughout India to be recognised with the Carnot Prize by the University of Pennsylvania”.

The Carnot Prize is the Kleinman Center’s annual recognition of distinguished contributions to energy policy through scholarship or practice. The most prestigious award in the energy sector, Carnot Prize is named after French physicist Nicolas Sadi Carnot who recognised that the power of the steam engine would “produce a great revolution” in human development.

The Carnot Prize is intended to honour those leading revolutions in energy policy to further progress and prosperity. (UNI)

In a move to boost research and development in the field of scientific development in the country, the Government on Wednesday announced hike in ‘Research Fellowship’ for PhD students and other research personnel enrolled in any area of science and technology, engineering, mathematical sciences, agricultural sciences, life sciences and pharmacy with effect from January 1, 2019.

The hike in fellowship will directly benefit over 60,000 ‘Research Fellows’ and also provide a template to the states to consider increase in their fellowship rates.

Under the new norms, the fellowship of the Junior Research Fellows (JRF) in the first two years of Ph.D programme is increased from the current rate of Rs 25,000 to Rs 31,000 per month while in the remaining tenure of Ph.D, senior research fellow will now get Rs 35,000 per month instead of Rs 28,000 per month.

Similarly, there is substantial increase of 30-35 percent have also been made in the financial rewards for the scientists involved in the “Research and Development” (R&D) projects, working as ‘Research Associates’.

The top bracket of Research Associateship is now fixed at Rs 54,000. All research fellows are now also entitled to House Rent Allowance (HRA) as per Central Government norms.

Government has ensured that this empowering mechanism is uniformly applicable across all the fellowship granting Ministries, Departments, Agencies and Academic and Government R&D organisations of the country.

For the first time, the Government has recommended a set of strong financial and academic incentives to enhance and recognise the performance of our research fellows, a senior official of the Ministry of Science and Technology said. (UNI)

Responding to the allegations of politicising his visit to BJP leader and former Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said his visit to the Goa chief minister was ‘strictly personal’ and driven by his empathy for the health condition of the latter.

In a letter to Mr Parrikar, Mr Gandhi, responding to a purported letter written by the Goa chief minister to him charging him of politicising his visit to the BJP leader, said, ‘Respectfully, my visit to you was strictly personal and driven purely by my empathy for your situation. You will no doubt recall that I also called you when you were undergoing treatment in the United States to enquire after your health and wish you well. ‘On the BJP and Mr Parrikar’s charge that he had, in his recent speeches, referred to conversations with Mr Parrikar during their meeting in Goa, Mr Gandhi said he had only referred to information that was already in the public domain.

‘I have not shared any details of my conversation with you when we met in Goa yesterday. In my two speeches since we met, I have referred to what is already in the public domain,’ he said.

‘It is a fact that in April 2015, while you were inaugurating a fish market in Goa, PM Modi announced the RAFALE deal in France with the then French President, Hollande. It is also a fact that you clearly stated to the press that you had no idea about the new deal engineered by the PM. This has been widely reported in all sections of the media.

Again, it is a fact that there is an audio recording of your own Cabinet colleague in Goa, claiming you told ministers in a cabinet meeting that you have the RAFALE papers in your “bed room”, implying that you have power over PM Modi and his cronies,’ Rahul said.

While asserting that he reserved the ‘absolute right to attack the corrupt PM on his blatant dishonesty in the RAFALE deal’, Rahul, however, said he understood that immense pressure to demonstrating his loyalty to the PM had led Mr Parrikar to attack him in this uncharacteristic manner.

‘Parrikar Ji, I empathise with your situation. I understand the Immense pressure you are under after our meeting yesterday. Pressure that has forced you to take the highly unusual step of demonstrating your loyalty to the PM and his cronies by attacking me in this uncharacteristic manner,’ Rahul said.

‘However Parrikar Ji, regardless of my visit, I am a democratic representative, elected to serve the Indian people, and as such I reserve the absolute right to attack the corrupt PM on his blatant dishonesty in the RAFALE deal,’Rahul said.

Earlier, Parrikar wrote to the Congress chief, accusing him of lying. The Rafale fighter jet deal, he wrote, had not even come up during their private conversation, Mr Parrikar wrote.

“Paying a courtesy visit and then stooping so low as to make a false statement for petty political gain has raised, in my mind, questions about the sincerity and purpose of your visit,” Mr Parrikar said.

He said such tactics should not be adopted against a person “fighting a life-threatening illness”. (UNI)

In a clear message to Pakistan disapproving its conduct, the High Commissioner of Pakistan to India Sohail Mahmood was summoned by the Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale on Wednesday night in connection with the “telephone conversation” initiated by the Foreign Minister of Pakistan Shah Mahmood Qureshi with Mirwaiz Umar Farooq of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference.

“The Foreign Secretary conveyed the Government of India’s condemnation in the strongest terms of this latest brazen attempt by Pakistan to subvert India’s unity and to violate our sovereignty and territorial integrity, by none other than the Pakistan Foreign Minister,” an MEA statement said here.

The BJP leader and Karnataka MP Shobha Karandlaje has mocked at the Congress over the news that AgustaWestland scam accused Rajiv Saxena and lobbyist Deepak Talwar have been extradited to India.

“Good news coming in Mitron, Friends of Congress nabbed by UAE officials and illegally extradited to India, BJP government reinforcing the trust of Common man,” She tweeted.

In what is seen as a major progress made by probe agencies in their efforts to unearth the corruption in the Defence deals, Christian Michel’s aide, Rajiv Saxena – co-accused in AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam and Deepak Talwar – a corporate lobbyist – have been extradited from Dubai past mid night.

Rajiv Saxena, according to reports, had in December 2018 filed for an anticipatory bail plea in front of the Patiala House Court.

He failed to respond to summons by the ED, following which an extradition request was put.

Rajiv Saxena is a co-accused in the scam and is a Dubai based Chartered Accountant who had allegedly laundered kickbacks in the deal. He had been named in the ED chargesheet.

Deepak Talwar is accused of facilitating aviation deals and is accused of concealing income of over Rs 1000 crores.

Rajiv Saxena’s wife Shivani Saxena was arrested from the Chennai airport in 2017 and is currently out on bail.

These fresh extradition have happened nearly two months after the extradition of Christian Michel, the alleged middleman in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper case.

The Enforcement Directorate has alleged that Rajiv Saxena, his wife Shivani Saxena, and their two Dubai-based firms routed “the proceeds of crime” and integrated the amount buying the immovable properties and shares among others.(UNI)

Shraddha Kapoor recently came on board for Remo’s next dance film after the successful stint with ‘ABCD 2’ starring alongside Varun Dhawan.
The actress is going to learn as many as five new dance forms for the film.
Shraddha has even hired her trainer Praveen Nair back who had trained her for ‘ABCD 2’.
She started with preps the day she came on board.
The movie will take dance to a notch higher and Shraddha wanted to ensure she does justice to it just like ‘ABCD 2’.
Since the makers have specific requirements of how her body has to be to essay the role of a professional dancer and since there is rigorous dancing, she wanted to have Praveen back as he understands that very well.
Shraddha had trained with Praveen for the previous film and the results were up on the screen.
Shraddha who’s currently wrapping up ‘Saaho’ shoot schedule and also shooting for portions for Nitesh Tiwari’s next ‘Chhichhore’ and takes time out daily for her training and practice.
The actress trains for 1.5 hours every day without any break and is doing dance rehearsals for three hours.(UNI)

India-born Chief financial officer of Tesla Inc, Deepak Ahuja has announced his retirement from the company on Thursday.
He would be succeeded by Zach Kirkhorn, the electric car maker’s vice president of finance, who has been with Tesla since the days of the original Roadster.
The announcement of the legendary CFO’s retirement was related near the end of the Q4 earnings call, with CEO Elon Musk expressing his thanks to the executive for his contributions to the company.
“I feel really good about Zach taking over. He’s proven his self over the years with many tough challenges he’s worked on,” Ahuja said.
Deepak, for his part, also thanked Tesla, stating that the company has arguably the best team in the industry. Despite leaving his post, Deepak is set to play a role in the company nonetheless, with Elon Musk stating that he would continue to serve as a “senior adviser” for “probably years to come.”
Ahuja, an IIT-BHU alumni was offered the position of Chief Financial Officer at Tesla Motors in June 2008 but he retired in 2015. He was again re-instated on the same position in Feb 2017.
Growing up in Mumbai, Ahuja originally planned to go into the family business. His parents were serial entrepreneurs who had established several successful businesses, primarily in the garment industry, manufacturing jeans and lingerie.
After Ahuja earned a bachelor’s degree in ceramic engineering from Banaras Hindu University, his father invited him to become a business partner in a factory that would manufacture ceramic insulators for the electric grid. The plan was that Ahuja would study in the United States to learn more about ceramic technology, then he would return to India .
The initial part of the plan worked well as in 1985, at the age of 22, Ahuja enrolled in McCormick as a
PhD student in materials science, his first time in the United States. Two years later he had earned
a master’s degree and made a couple of alterations to his life plan, he would not return to India right away, and he would not complete a PhD. “A PhD would have taken me too deeply into pure science,” Ahuja explained in a Mccornick report, and further discovered he was more interested in applied technology.
Ahuja has also worked in several automobile companies like Ford motors and Auto Alliance International.(UNI)

Expressing concern over the passing of the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016 in Lok Sabha and the developments relating to the Bill in the North Eastern states, former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Nabam Tuki has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reconsider the decision taken by his Government for the greater interest of the indigenous citizens of the country, particularly the NE region.
In his letter addressed to Prime Minister, Mr Tuki wrote,”the hurry in which the Bill is passed in the Parliament in the wake of the ensuing Parliament elections neglecting the rights, privileges and sentiments of the indigenous people of North East is something which was avoidable at this time.”
The Union Government who is supposed to preserve , protest and safeguard the uniqueness and characteristics of the protected Tribes of Arunachal Pradesh and other states cannot be subject to unrest and intimidation due to the largesse’s of the Government without understanding the consequences and social, cultural and demographic imbalances which will be detrimental to the existence of the region itself, he said.
“Arunachal Pradesh has already faced the unfortunate issue of settlement of Chakma –Hajong refugees which has created large scale dissatisfaction and cultural problems in the State. Therefore, I earnestly urge your goodself to reconsider the decision taken by your Government,” the former Chief Minister wrote to Prime Minister on Monday.
In a separate letter to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Mr Tuki apprised him that other political parties and the Chief Ministers of the alliance partners of the BJP under North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) has totally opposed the CAB.
“Our Congress party should also make the stand clear and raise the issue and may ensure that the Bill is defeated in the Rajya Sabha in order to protect the rights and privileges of the North east India,” the Congress MLA wrote to Dr Singh, a day after he shot off letter to Mr Modi.
Mr Tuki also wrote to Chief Minister Pema Khandu urging him to take a strong decision to protest before the Centre for immediate withdrawal of the proposed Bill.
He also requested him to urge the Centre for exemption from CAB to Arunachal Pradesh.
It may be mentioned that 10 regional political parties of the North East including several allies of BJP, passed an unanimous resolution to oppose the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016, at a convention in Guwahati recently.
The CAB, 2016, seeks to give Indian citizenship to persecuted religious minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.(UNI)

Thane, Jan 31 (UNI) Two people were killed and four others injured, when their car hit a road divider at Manpada bridge in this district of Maharashtra, police said.
The incident occurred on Wednesday night, when the occupants of the car, residents of Chitalsar Manpada, were returning from a village after attending a pre-marriage function of an acquaintance.
The deceased were identified as Ankush Chandwade and Arjun Pardi.
Further investigation was on.

New Delhi, Jan 31 (UNI) President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday highlighted various achievements of the Modi government and said that the country is following a road map as envisioned by the likes of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr B R Ambedkar.
“Our country is following a roadmap as envisioned by Mahatma Gandhi and which is based on social justice and value based principles,” THE President said in his address to the Joint Sitting of Parliament here.
He said right from the day one, the government has worked with a determined manner to fight corruption and other menaces associated with the government.
Amid frequent thumping of desks, the President mentioned about various welfare measures and the government’s move to fight diseases, ensure economical medical treatment and also setting up of AIIMS.
He said under his government, rural development has been a focus area and electricity has reached all the villages in the country.
“We are heading towards a situation where there will be no house without power,” Mr Kovind said.

Uber, the world’s largest ridesharing company, on Wednesday announced a pilot launch of UberBOAT service in Mumbai, in partnership with Maharashtra Maritime Board.
The on-demand service will provide transportation from three of the city’s popular coastal routes namely Gateway of India, Elephanta Islands and Mandwa Jetty, via speed boats.
Starting February 1, riders can access two variants of UberBOAT based on seating capacity – 6-8 seater for UberBOAT and 10 plus seater for UberBOAT XL.
Uber’s vision is to transform into a multi-modal transportation platform in India.
In line with this, UberBOAT will enable riders in Mumbai to request a speedboat at the tap of a button through the Uber app, thus making waterway commute in the city efficient and convenient.
Mr Sanjay Bhatia, Chairman, Bombay Port Trust, said, “Our vision is to make Mumbai as the sea transport and tourism hub of the country in collaboration with Maharashtra Maritime Board. It is a pleasure to launch UberBOAT in Mumbai, a step to make the waterway commute more efficient and convenient. As we continue to reimagine the waterways of Mumbai through a host of ambitious projects and partnerships, we believe UberBOAT will play a pivotal role in improving connectivity and will work closely with Uber to make this pilot a success.”

(UNI) Union Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday said by leveraging all 1.55 lakh post offices across the country, the India Post payment Bank (IPPB) would be able to provide banking services to the last man in rural and remote areas and help realizing the dream of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of economic transformation and creation of New India with all-encompassing financial inclusion.
Mr Goyal also congratulated the Department of Posts and IPPB for their efforts in spreading the activities of the bank.
Union Communications Minister Manoj Sinha expressed satisfaction at the rapid scale up of the bank. He also commended the bank’s efforts to simplify and popularize digital payments in the country.
He said in a little over four months, the Bank has rolled out 1.25 lakhs access points across the country. Significantly approximate 1.10 lakh of these Access Points are located in the rural areas. It is fastest Access Points ramp up in banking history with the average rate of over 800 Access Points per day. The number of its Access Points is nearly twice the number of bank branches in rural India until recently.
The two Ministers were speaking at a special function organised to mark completion of two years of IPPB since its pilot launch.

An estimated 2,275 people, or six a day, died or went missing crossing the Mediterranean in 2018, making it the world’s deadliest sea crossing, despite a significant drop in arrivals reaching European shores, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said Wednesday.
“Refugees and migrants attempting to reach Europe via the Mediterranean Sea lost their lives at an alarming rate in 2018, as cuts in search and rescue operations reinforced its position as the world’s deadliest sea crossing,” said the UNHCR in its latest “Desperate Journeys” report released Wednesday.
In total, 139,300 refugees and migrants arrived in Europe in 2018, the lowest number in five years.
“Saving lives at sea is not a choice, nor a matter of politics, but an age-old obligation,” said Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
The report describes how shifts in policy by some European States saw numerous incidents left large numbers of people stranded at sea for days on end, waiting for permission to dock.
NGO boats and their crews faced growing restrictions on their search and rescue operations.
On routes from Libya to Europe, one person died at sea for every 14 who arrived in Europe – a sharp rise on 2017 levels.
Thousands more returned to Libya where they faced appalling conditions inside detention centers.
“For many, setting foot in Europe was the final stop of a nightmarish journey on which they had faced torture, rape and sexual assault, and the threat of being kidnapped and held for ransom,” said UNHCR.
It said States must take urgent action to dismantle smuggling networks and bring perpetrators of these crimes to justice.
The UN agency noted a glimmer of hope in some places.
Despite political deadlock on a regional approach to sea rescue and disembarkation, as called for by UNHCR and IOM in June, several States committed to relocating people rescued on the central Mediterranean.
Some countries also pledged thousands of resettlement places for those evacuating Libya.
For the first time in recent years, Spain was the primary European entry point s around 8,000 arrived by land (via the Ceuta and Melilla enclaves) and a further 54,800 people successfully crossed the perilous Western Mediterranean.
As a result, western Mediterranean deaths nearly quadrupled from 202 in 2017 t (UNI)

Terming Congress President Rahul Gandhi as a more evolved person in comparison to the earlier General elections, former Union Minister Prakash Jaiswal on Wednesday claimed that the Congress will touch new heights of success in Uttar Pradesh, after the entry of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in the political fray.

Talking to UNI on Wednesday, Mr Jaiswal said, “The kind of maturity that was lacking in Mr Gandhi in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, is very much there now. The Congress President, who is fully evolved in politics, is discharging his responsibilities in a better way, which is clearly evident by the victory in the recently-concluded Vidhan Sabha polls in three states.”

Giving Mr Gandhi the credit for bringing Ms Vadra into the political ambit, the former Union Minister said that this far-sighted decision will prove to be the ‘sanjeevani’ for the party in Uttar Pradesh.

“Prime Minister Modi had made many promises to the people of the country right before the elections and none of those have been fulfilled.

‘Congress has got a new strength and vigour with Priyanka Gandhi’s entry. She had limited herself to Rai Bareli hitherto, but the state of Uttar Pradesh, along with the whole country, will witness her popularity in the next two-three days.”

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) was interrogating Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer and former Hamirpur District Magistrate B Chandrakala, over the alleged mining scam during the previous Samajwadi Party regime here on Wednesday.
On January 24, she had given a miss to the ED, who had summoned her to appear before them.
Instead of appearing in person before the ED at their Lucknow office, the IAS officer who was on study leave, sent her lawyer to hand over the required papers.
But in Wednesday, Chandrakala appeared before the ED at around 1130 hrs on their second summon.
Sources said that the interrogation was underway and could continue till the evening.

On Tuesday, the ED had summoned SP MLC Ramesh Kumar Mishra for interrogation but he too skipped it and instead sent his lawyer. The ED had lodged a case against 11 people, including the IAS officer and a Samajwadi Party MLC, in connection with the alleged illegal mining scam. The probe agency had also issued summons to all the accused to appear before them for interrogation.

According to sources, the lawyer of the IAS, on January 24 had submitted the papers related to the assets of Chandrakala as sought by the ED.

In the first week of January, CBI, which was probing the illegal mining scam on the direction of the Allahabad High Court, had raided residences and other places of 11 accused including the IAS officer and the MLC.

Chandrakala is accused of flouting the rules and granting licenses for sand mining during her tenure as district magistrate of Hamirpur in 2012. (UNI)

Datanet India, an ITeS company, launched a first-of-its-kind mobile application, named ‘Key Economic Indicators of India’ which collects latest updates and information on various elements of the economy such as Wholesale Price Index (WPI), Consumer Price index (CPI) Inflation, National Income and more.
With a name suggestive of its game, the ‘Key Economic Indicators of India’ collects latest updates and information on various elements of the economy such as Wholesale Price Index (WPI), Consumer Price index (CPI) Inflation, National Income, Foreign Trade and Investment, Exchange Rates, Bullion Rates, Capital Market, Insurance, Index of Industrial Production, Index of eight core Industries, Infrastructure, Energy Generation, Railways, Petroleum prices, Retail price of selected food commodities and Wage Rates that forms the entire economic ecosphere.
The data collected in the app are drawn from authentic sources, which are then compared with current, last month and last year’s data of respective sectors, giving the most realistic, up-to-date and comprehensive information on the Indian economy. Furthermore, the data is updated with the latest economic information on a weekly basis.
The app is supported by 19 languages, of which 12 are Indian — Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and the remaining seven are foreign languages such as Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Nepali, Russian and Spanish. The app is functional on both iOS and Android platforms.(UNI) 

Leading Peer to Peer (P2P) online money lending marketplace Paisa Dukan on Tuesday announced Trivago-famed guy Abhinav Kumar has joined its Board of Advisors.

At Paisa Dukan, Mr Kumar will look after the digital marketing and branding space.

Talking to UNI, Paisa Dukan CMD Rajiv Ranjan said, “While the entire Fintech industry works on the concept of digitization to provide contactless financial solutions with Abhinav coming in the advisory board of the Paisa Dukan, his experience will help in to elevate our digital marketing strategy. I also see an exponential growth in our digital footprint in next quarter.”

The Mumbai-based firm is playing a pivotal role in providing their clients with the finest financial platform to create a smart way of lending or borrowing money in a transparent way.

“The peer to peer marketplace is an interesting thing and the way internet population is growing it would be beneficial for both the lending and borrowing fraternity. The loan seekers can get the loan easily while the young salaried class who are in search for avenues investing their savings can take advantage of this platform,” Mr Abhinav Kumar told UNI on his joining at the Paisa Dukan.

Telecom Major, Vodafone Idea Ltd, on Wednesday announced a strategic partnership with Sun TV Network-south India’s biggest entertainment network.

Sun TV Network’s OTT platform, Sun NXT, caters to Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam audiences having over 50,000+ hours of content and will now be accessible to Vodafone Idea customers.

This partnership will offer Vodafone Idea’s customers access to Sun NXT’s exclusive digital content, a release said customers are increasingly looking forward to entertainment in regional languages. Through this partnership, Vodafone Idea has widened its bouquet of regional content through Sun NXT on Vodafone

Play and Idea Movies and TV app respectively.

Sun NXT will power 30+ Live TV channels, 4000+ movies and a huge repository of TV shows, music videos and short format content on both Vodafone Play and Idea Movies & TV App. Vodafone Idea is first in the industry to launch this partnership for the entire catalogue including movies.

The customers will be able to access top TV channels like Sun TV, Gemini TV, Udaya TV, Surya TV and many other such channels and also popular movies and top-rated TV shows across the four languages on

Sun NXT through Vodafone Play and Idea Movies & TV.

Commenting on the partnership, Sashi Shankar, Chief Marketing Officer, Vodafone Idea Limited said, ‘When it comes to content, we are singularly focused on providing entertainment to our customers keeping in mind their consumption, language and culture. We believe that video and vernacular are the new growth drivers in digital

content consumption today, especially in markets of South India.

Regional content creates affinity amongst the consumers. We are delighted to partner with Sun TV Network to provide enriched entertainment to our customers by offering high quality regional content on Vodafone & Idea’s Mobile apps.'(UNI)