Plan a New Year party with Times City

The countdown to the New Year has begun. Are you ready for the party? How do you want to sign off 2009? Are you still planning which happening place to visit? Or are you among those who are confused with too many offers and are yet to zero in on your kind of place? If that's the case, relax.

Indiatimes is launching an online party guide for New Year's parties and events across the cities. The New Year Eve (NYE) Ticketing website makes your job easier in finding the right kind place for you by providing you access to tickets/passes to the most happening parties in the city.

The site not only gives you a comprehensive list of the best parties, it also provides you details about various types of cuisine, bars and exciting offers by various parties.

Says Indiatimes spokesperson: "We are delighted to announce the launch of a site which will help GenX rock to the beat of foot-tapping numbers and welcome New Year with open arms. In order to address the need of the youngsters for a one-place site for getting tickets/passes to the most happening New Year celebration of the city, we have launched New Year Eve (NYE) Ticketing website. We have always endeavoured to make life easy, simple and fun for youngsters.The launch of this site is an effort in that direction."

So, what are you waiting for? Just log on newyear.indiatimes.com and buy tickets/passes to the most happening parties in the city and start celebrating New Year
from today.

TOI unveils sleeker, faster website

The Times of India Online, the world's No. 1 English newspaper website in terms of page views (ComScore, May 2009 figures), has unveiled its new design, which is more youthful, vibrant and contemporary. A notable feature of new-look TOI website is that pages load much faster than before.


The guiding principle behind the new design has been usefulness for the reader. The new design gives better display to content that is of greater relevance and importance to readers.


To give the reader a quick overview of what is happening in India and around the world, the top block on the homepage now offers more headlines, photos and videos. For ease of reading, the text size for both headlines and stories has been increased.


Instead of a single picture, the top block on the homepage now has a slideshow, which can also have one or more videos. On the homepage itself, you can now get the top headlines from any of the 29 cities TOI covers extensively.

Navigation has been made easier by reducing the number of tabs in the top navigation bar and, in some cases, rearranging the categories so that readers can easily find what they are looking for.

In the new design, readers will be able to save the RSS feeds of a particular section by clicking the orange RSS button next to the "You are here" line below the navigation bar. The RSS link on top of the page takes you to the RSS page of timesofindia.com, where you can find all the RSS feeds TOI offers.

In the coming days, TOI Online will have some more pleasant surprises for readers.

Our advertisers have been asking for a standard ad banner size of 300 pixels x 250 pixels in line with the prevalent global practice.

They would be happy to learn that in our new design the 240 pixels x 400 pixels banner slots have been replaced with 300 pixels x 250 pixels slots.

Readers can email to toionlineeditor@indiatimes.co.in design mockups preferably in JPEG format, with "design mockup" written in the subject line of the email. Readers' suggestions may be incorporated in TOI's ever-evolving design.

Rakhi – Celebrate the Eternal Bond of Love

Once again Indiatimes Shopping, one of the largest online shopping brands, is ready to delight its customers with its great Rakhi offers. Not only is there an outstanding range of Rakhis and Gifting options but also the promise of an Assured Gift with every purchase- a dazzling Pearl Pendant! Coupled with 50% cash back scheme running across the site , customers will be delighted shopping for Rakhi. Indiatimes Rakhi collection offers its customers widest range of Rakhi options to choose from with unbelievable offers

There are classic Rakhi ideas like Rakhi thali’s Mithai hampers, dry fruits and Rakhi Packs. Then there are designer Rakhi’s like Pearl Rakhi’s, Zardozi Rakhi’s, Gold Rakhi’s, Silver Rakhi’s. Not to forget the cute range of cartoon Rakhi’s for kids. All these Hampers with Rakhi can be delivered within India as well as abroad. There are separate categories for “Send Rakhis to USA” & “ Send Rakhi’s Worldwide”.Rakhis start at a very attractive prices of Rs 65 and prices of Hampers for instance Mithai hampers start at Rs.99/-, dry fruits at Rs.101, Designer Rakhi’s start at just Rs.89/-

And if you are interested in giving gifts then Indiatimes Shopping won’t let you down. There is a huge variety of Gifts to choose from across categories - electronics, apparels and accessories, jewellery and lots more.

There is an amazing collection of electronic products ranging from MP3 players / ipods, mobile phones, Branded digital camera’s, camcorders, home décor, assortment of home appliances, LCD’s, laptops etc all offering upto 75% discount.

Talking about apparels and accessories, there is an extensive line of apparels/clothes, lingerie and apparel accessories that includes men's apparel, ladies apparel, shirts, t-shirts, trousers, bottoms, skirts, traditional Indian clothes, sarees, salwar Kameez/ Salwar suits, Indian ethnic wear and many more. On branded apparel discount is up to 60% off.

In Jewellery there is a wide collection ranging from Pearls, diamond, semi-precious stones, sterling silver and gold starting from Rs. 149/- onwards. There is also an extensive range of Bracelets starting @ Rs.100 and Chains starting @ Rs.99, Earrings, rings , pendants and many more

Dishtv and Indiatimes 58888 enter Strategic tie up to offer VAS services Launch Mobile VAS to set new grounds, redefines the mobile internet experienc

, Indiatimes.com, the internet venture of India’s largest media house – the Times Group and Dishtv – India’s No. 1 direct-to-home company and part of the largest media conglomerate – Zee Group, have entered into a strategic tie up to offer the customers a host of Mobile Value added services on TV.

Dishtv has partnered with Indiatimes.com to offer mobile interactive services “Mobile Active”. Viewers can now preview the mobile services on TV and download their favorite mobile content onto their mobile handsets. The content spans across ringtones, wallpapers, text alerts and contests.

Evolution of cellular technologies and increasing number of mobile subscribers in India has driven telecommunication industry to become one of the fastest growing industries in India today. Mobile Active service is aimed to meet this demand. Salil Kapoor, COO, Dishtv said, “Mobile Active is our latest initiative to drive convergence in the entertainment and communication space. In our endeavor to take TV beyond entertainment, we have recently launched internet powered interactive Life services, wherein Dishtv customers can search for jobs, seek their life partner and plan their dream vacation by a click on TV remote. Through our latest offering Mobile Active, our main focus is on empowering our young customers and giving them an easy user interface to download mobile VAS products. Gone are the days when TV was called an idiot box, we are in the process of creating a whole new user experience of TV viewing by offering a plethora of services including information, connectivity with internet services along with entertainment. We are pleased to join hands with Indiatimes.com, India’s leading portal to bring yet another novel service “Mobile Active” to our 5.7 million subscribers.” Salil Kapoor added.

Speaking about the tie-up, Times Internet Limited CEO Rishi Khiani said: “Our mobile VAS division has witnessed rapid expansion since past one year with the launch of new services like 58888 IVR portal, Active Deals, etc. With this tie up we at Indiatimes 58888, will be able to enhance our customer touch points and maximize revenue opportunities. As a news and media conglomerate, our primary asset and USP is quality content and with this strategic tie-up, our content would become more accessible via DTH platforms enabling 360-degree convergent delivery, and ensuring wider reach. Our partners, Dishtv too, would be able to offer its subscribers this value-add as part of an enhanced bouquet of services.”

About Dishtv India

Dishtv is India’s No. 1 direct-to-home company and part of the biggest media conglomerate – Zee group. Dishtv has on its platform 240 channels & services including 21 audio channels with over 5.7 million subscribers, which is growing. Dishtv has a vast distribution network of about 700 distributors & 48,000 dealers that spans around 6600 towns across the country. Dishtv has 24* 7 call centre with 1600 seats in 11 different languages to take care of subscriber requirements at any point of time. For more information on Dishtv, visit www.dishtv.in

Now, register your domains with Times Internet Limited

Domain business in India is growing @ 35% yearly and the internet business by 30%. SME’s will play a major role in this growth as they would reap the benefits of the current trend. While most technology vendors are witnessing a sharp decline in their revenue because of the cascading effect of the recent recession, domain businesses are scaling up.

Times Internet Limited is now a domain registrar. ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned names and Numbers) has appointed TIL as an accredited domain registrar for the following domains - .com, .net, .info and .org. More information is available on www.domains.indiatimes.com

With this new offering, TIL graduates from being a prominent domain reseller to joining a handful of Indian organizations that have attained the prestigious status of being full fledged registrars. TIL has been in the business of enabling SME & SOHO’s in their online business since many years. By taking this step TIL reiterates its commitment to this ever growing requirement for SME to go online. Globally domain registrations have shown a growth of more than 45% every year.

Booking a Domain is the first step in taking one’s business online and is the first and the most crucial step. Domains name should be descriptive of your products, services or and the name of your organizations and ideally should be short & memorable. It also establishes your online identity and opens many opportunities to increase your customer base if you can create a website on this domain name.

“Our new tool also suggests other related domains which are available and enables you to register . We have attractive schemes and offers which are intended to increase repeat visitors and build patronage amongst are customers. We also offer services which are natural extension of domains like business emails and websites- both customized and standard, this places us uniquely as a one stop destination for our customers. This guarantees quality assurance for consumers, emulating from a strong technology platform & made available at highly competitive prices.” says, Rishi Khiani CEO, Times Internet Limited.

TIL also provides end solutions like business email ids, website hosting solutions, design template and custom made websites, as well as search engine optimization services for customers and is a one stop web solutions company.

TIL is poised to enable SME’s to take their business online and has made considerable investments in this regard. More information is available on www.business.indiatimes.com

Snapfish Clicks Deal With Indiatimes

Snapfish, (www.snapfish.in) - world’s leading consumer online photo service by HP has joined hands with Indiatimes.com,is the Internet venture of India’s largest media house - The Times Group to announce an innovative web collaboration. The partnership facilitates the launch of a co-branded Photo Center, enabling over 11.1million users(please add information) to print, share and store unlimited number of photographs. With Snapfish Photo Center, Indiatimes users can choose from a wide array of products ranging from photo greeting cards, t-shirts, mugs, sporty drinking bottles, money boxes, calendars, stickers and much more, to create and order fully customized photo gifts online.

At the announcement, Times Internet Limited CEO, Rishi Khiani said, “At Indiatimes, we continuously work towards introducing innovative mechanisms and platforms to enhance the user experience on our website. With the Snapfish co-branded photo center, we aim to provide a fantastic platform to Indiatimes users to create personalized products as well as store and share unlimited number of personal pictures effortlessly online.”

“Being the global leader in the online photo finishing space, Snapfish enjoys a discerning understanding of today’s eConsumer shopping needs as well as preferences,” stated Bala Parthasarathy, Managing Director, Europe and Asia Pacific, Snapfish, Hewlett Packard at the announcement. He also added, “We always look for avenues to diversify our consumer base. Web-alliances with premier websites like Indiatimes, allow us to extend our product and service offerings to wider audiences.”

In US, it is estimated that online printing market will touch $1 billion by 2011 (Currently, at $500 million). However, in India online photo printing market is still at a nascent stage.

With an ever-increasing internet penetration, Indiatimes is poised to corner lion's share of the Indian market with the tie-up with Snapfish.

TAN goes live with Microsoft, launches live streaming for Times Now, India TV and Zoom

TAN, the digital video arm of the Times Group, today announced the launch of the live stream for Times Now, India TV and Zoom. Starting today, web users can watch the television feed of India's leading English, Hindi and Entertainment news channels on Live.Indiatimes.com.

In phase 1 of the launch, users will be able to watch the webcast with their facebook friends while getting real-time updates on the latest headlines from the TimesofIndia and EconomicTimes. The live-stream will be powered using Microsoft Silverlight 3.0.

Rishi Khiani, CEO, Times Internet Limited said "TAN is today the only video platform that allows for best-of-breed cross platform syndication and monetization. With this partnership between TAN and Microsoft, we continue to be at the bleeding edge of digital video. This offering opens up more innovative ad-formats for advertisers, with on-demand, mobile and now live video.""

Moorthy Uppaluri, General Manager-DPE, Microsoft India, said “We are delighted that Microsoft’s technology will now bring users the access to live video steaming and webcasts of television feeds for their leading news channel on real-time basis. With Silverlight 3.0 Microsoft is enabling easy development of rich internet applications for the web. Powered by Silverlight 3.0, http://live.indiatimes.com will also be able to provide picture-in-picture overlays for ad support and provide interactive tools for web customers. We believe that the consumers will be excited by features such as deep zoom, animation, 3D effects, smooth streaming and vector graphics on the web.”

The webcast of the news feeds will be ad-supported, with in-video formats such as pre-rolls, rich media companion banner ads, overlays and player skin branding.

Users can watch Times Now, India TV and Zoom at http://live.indiatimes.com starting today.

OUR USP: ET Portfolio Wizard – The wizard of Money Management

Economictimes.com, the online edition of world’s 2^nd largest financial Daily, now brings to you the Wizard of Money Management. Here comes ET Portfolio Wizard– the real-life wizard that would transform the way online investment tracking works – and that too with a single sleight-of-hand.

It’s automatic and so easy to use that even tax/investment consultant swears by it. No more tedious filling-out of numerous online forms in sequence – you’d only need to copy-paste your data just once and for all to activate, manage, update and continue with your account. Here’s the lowdown:

Try our new Portfolio’s Upload Wizard feature, which handles bulk transactions in a couple of clicks. Or perhaps ET Portfolio’s special IPO section that tracks down even your ESOPs. Also try our upcoming IPOs that might attract you, or the Alerts & Watchlists section which offers a bouquet of brand new features. But more on that later.

Don’t believe how easy it is? 50,000 tax payers bet on our Tax Wizard last year for calculating and filing their returns without the help of a Tax professional – its sheer wizardry!

And all of this comes with 128-bit encryption security arrangement of course, so that you’re sure that your data is completely safe.

Upload Wizard

The ET Portfolio’s unique Upload Wizard makes transaction entering simple. The Wizard has been pre-configured to import data directly from over XX brokers (LIST – ICICI Direct, Sharekhan, Reliance Money, Religare, Motilal Oswal, IDBI, Man Financial, etc) More will be added as we move along. There are other options as well. Like uploading bulk transaction history into an Excel file. Upload Wizard will automatically read your data, validate it and upload the same into your portfolio. Get a hold on your investments, the easy way.

Tracking More Asset Classes

ET Portfolio not only tracks Stocks, MFs, Deposits and Real Estate, but is the only service that even keeps track of your ESOPs (Employee Stock Option Scheme). A special IPO section also keeps a watch on upcoming IPOs and also tracks investments from the time you file the IPO application.

Security

The only integrated portfolio tool that keeps your data secure using 128-bit encryption, the kind if security used by Banks and brokers for their online ebusinesses. The security of your financial data is very important to us.

Integrated Tax Tool

The only portfolio tool to provide an integrated tax calculation and filing engine. Last summer, 50,000 tax payers used our tool. See what they had to say about us before you try it. Now with the integrated Portfolio and Tax engine, your short-term/long-term taxes and the dividend, interest components will be automatically exported to your tax returns.

Family View

Now maintain the portfolio of the whole family at one place. Get an integrated view or individual view of each portfolio. What’s more, family members can get independent access to monitor their individual portfolios.

Alerts and Watchlists

Alerts for updates on transactions or important triggers. You can even set up multiple watchlists to keep track of stocks and MFs you are interested in.

Wealth Manager and Tax Consultant View

Select parts of the ET Portfolio and Tax Wizard can be enabled for your Wealth Manager or Financial Advisor/Tax Consultant to access, thus creating a seamless single source of information for all your financial advisory requirements.

ET Portfolio Wizard has lot more to offer, such as, double entry book-keeping, auto update of SIPs/SWPs; Alerts and automatic adjustments of dividends, bonus, stock splits, interests, redemption etc. Come take a look, you will be the richer for it.

The Zero Fuss Wizard

Three days left, and you haven’t filed your returns. Try the ET tax wizard, it’s so easy to use and it just takes 5 minutes to fill the form. Don’t believe us; listen to some of the testimonials that grateful netizens from all over the country have been inundating us with.

Omar Sharif, Domain Consultant with Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. in Mumbai, wrote to us that the interface “very user friendly…indeed it made my life simpler”.

Geetanjali P., an Analyst with a major computer manufacturing MNC in Bangalore says it “greatly simplified the tax filing process for professionals like me”.

Nipun K, a fellow Analyst in an MNC IT firm in the Graden City the Tax Wizard was “a great and easy-to-use tool by Economic Times”.

But for the final word we’ll go to 79-year-old Sunder Thadani in Mumbai. He’s been trying his hand at e-filling for the past three years, but found it “very difficult to use”. This is when he came to www.tax.economictimes.com and discovered the ET Tax Wizard. In his own words, “I was surprised to find compiling the returns on the screen so simple, and quick. I completed my returns within 15 minutes…it was so efficient and fast that even an old man like me could complete the returns.” Mr Thadani went on to add he “was saved so much tension and time which is wasted in filing the returns”.

But its not just a Tax Return tool, ET Tax Wizard is a pert of the ET Portfolio Wizard, the wealth management software that allows investors and savers to keep a track of their investements like shares, mutual funds, fixed deposits, NSC (National Savings Certificates) KVP (Kisan Vikas Patra), PPF (Public Provident Fund), RBI and Corporate Bonds and many more financial instruments. If a user maintains his investment portfolio on the ET Portfolio Wizard, then the calculation of capital gains on shares and mutual funds is automatically taken care-off.

So like Mr Thadani and thousands of others, why not give the ET Tax Wizard a try? We guarantee that this year there’ll be little worry and zero fuss, at least on the tax front. Even if you have filed your returns logon to ET portfolio wizard and create start tracking your investments there, so that next year your return filing is further simplified.

http://www.tax.economictimes.com

ET Now and Times Now to present live Budget09 on Times Audience Network

Times Audience Network, the online video arm of the Times Group, will be simulcasting the live budget feed for ET Now and Times Now on July 6.

It will be a never-done-before event in the Indian electronic medium’s history with TAN coming together with Microsoft, Facebook, Akamai and the television properties of the Times Group. Users will get live coverage of both ET Now and Times Now as well as on-demand videos, live news feeds, special updates and will also be able to interact with Facebook friends–all from a single show window. And with Facebook Connect and Live Stream Box, they will be able to take part in real-time conversations with their favourite TV anchors. The event will be hosted at

http://budgetlive.economictimes.com “We’re pleased to collaborate with the Times Group on their coverage of the national budget,” said Meenal Balar, International Marketing Manager at Facebook. “As discussions in New Delhi get under way, we hope Indians will share their comments and opinions with their friends on Facebook.”

Sanjay Sinha, Director – Enterprise Evangelism, Microsoft India says, “Users will experience unique features such as on-demand videos, picture-in-picture feature to watch highlights while watching the live stream, powered by Silverlight.”

The event will be powered by Akamai, the global leader in live and on-demand streaming delivery. Sanjay Singh, MD, Akamai India, says they can “guarantee that viewers will get a flawless, high quality, live streaming experience.”

Sunil Rajshekhar, TIMES INTERNET LIMITED, President and COO, says, with the Live Budget show, we’ll be bringing together the strengths of industry leaders in the content and technology space.The event is a continuation of our leadership and innovation in the online video space. It also marks the entry of ETNow onto TAN and will help expand our efforts in proliferating rich media consumption.”

For NRIs, it’s perfect future with Astrotalk

Want to know what the New Year has in store for you? Hunting for bride for your NRI son with little success? Want to know whether you would get one in India this time? Finding hard to figure out whether it’s right time to invest in India? Has the impending year-end increment in office got you worried and has robbed you off your night sleep?

Don’t worry, Indiatimes Astrospeak has got an answer to all your queries and a perfect solution for all your worries.

Indiatimes Astrospeak has started Live Astrology service for all NRI users where they not only get a chance to find the right astrologers in India but also speak to them over the phone instantly.

All that you have to do is to log on to www.astrospeak.com and buy talktime, and speak to the astrologer simply by dialling +91-124-4704813. The talktime packages are available at minimal cost ranging from USD 10 for15 minutes to USD 30 for 1 hour. The questions are answered both in Hindi as well as English and the service is available 24×7

So, just log on to www.astrospeak.com, buy talktime and then call +91-124-4704813 now! And cast away blues with our renowned astrologers handling your Rahus and Ketus.

About Astrospeak

Astrospeak.com is one of the first astrology sites with more than a million registered users. Not only it has the best of astrologers such as Bejan Daruwalla, Ritu Shukla, Uma Shankar Shukla, Ajai Bhambi, Kewal Anand Joshi, Pankaj Khanna and many more in the panel, there are also products and services across all genres of astrology.

Need an answer to all your questions? Now personal astrology is just a call away!

Are you wondering whether your boss would be happy with your performance in your current project? Would you like to know whether you would lose weight this year? Are you anxious to know whether you would join that premier collage? Do you want to know whether that new composition of yours is going to be super hit? Do you wonder when would success and happiness become your companion? Are you keen to test your luck, but are afraid of onsequences? Do you want to know your future?

If you need answers to all such questions, just call 58888999! 58888 Voice proudly introduces Live Astrology service to Airtel mobile subscribers. Be it love, marriage, compatibility, wealth, employment security, profit in business, education, job change,lucky colour for an upcoming interview, auspicious dates and times or simply chances of travelling abroad, just call 58888999 and get all your questions answered from our panel of renowned astrologers.

Said service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, is available in Hindi and English and is priced at Rs. 7 per minute.

Small soldiers reign supreme at the 2009 ET-ZigWheels Awards!

India’s indigenous people’s car, the Tata Nano, is the 2009 Economic Times ZigWheels Car of the Year. Facing competition from other spanking new and larger cars (including the Mahindra Xylo, the Fiat Grande Punto, the Toyota Fortuner and the Mercedes-Benz E-class to name but a handful), the Tata Nano came out on tops not only for its revolutionary rethinking of design, but more so for its relevance to an India waking up to the romance of the automobile, and the space that the car has managed to create for itself not just in its country of origin but also internationally.

The recently launched Bajaj Pulsar 135LS has been adjudged the 2009 ET-ZigWheels Bike of the Year. In a lukewarm year for new motorcycle launches, the Pulsar scored massively thanks to its marriage of practicality, ease of use and the new sport-light class it attempts to establish by offering all the fun that motorcycles stand for.

The judging took place at the ZigWheels editorial headquarters in Pune after two days of rigorous testing involving the all-new cars and bikes launched between December 15, 2008 and December 15, 2009. A total of 37 cars and 12 bikes were driven, ridden and evaluated by the jury, headed by ZigWheels Editor-in-chief Adil Jal Darukhanawala.

The judging took place in two rounds, the first of which had vehicles from their respective categories go up against one another. This was to ensure that vehicles from the now widely available strata ranging from ultra-low cost cars to the ultra-luxurious ones did not face off at the first instant, but instead battled on the common grounds of their own category. Cars and bikes in each category were looked at for their overall design and packaging, their advances in creature comforts and occupant well-being and safety, the mechanicals and associated performance, the dynamic ability of the vehicle. The price point of the vehicle and its relevance to that particular category were also looked with a keen eye. The first round threw up some interesting in-class results, and the category awards were decided not only on the basis of the how well the cars and bikes delivered vis-à-vis the expectations from that particular category, but also the impact they promised to have on their peers and the market in general.

In the second round, respective winners from their categories were thrown into the ring to decide the single outstanding car and bike of 2009. Members of the jury were asked to distribute the 25 points allotted to them between the eight cars and five motorcycles that had topped their classes. The wide disparity between the category winners made this quite a task for the jury, but the final verdict was decided based on not just the quality and relevance of the machines, but more importantly by considering how much further that particular car or bike will take the cause of the Indian automotive industry and the consumer base it caters to.

“The smallest car took the biggest award on the Indian automotive scene thanks to a great idea which was uniquely attempted and well executed,” said Adil Jal Darukhanawala, Editor-in-chief of ET-ZigWheels. “From being resilient enough not to respond to wayward criticism during the concept stage and right through to its production unveiling, the boffins and the management at Tata Motors have quite clearly exhibited pioneering skills which surely make the Tata Nano the right car for the masses in the 21^st century. Simple yet effective, the Nano represents the more from less mantra is the way forward for a people’s car in the 21^st century.”

Delivering his rationale behind the Bajaj Pulsar 135LS taking top honours in the two-wheeler category, Darukhanawala said: “This bike represents yet another step up to improving the present breed of Indian motorcycles. A small displacement stylish commuter with performance akin to bikes of a class higher is an irresistible cocktail concocted by an all Indian team. We are all sure that the ideas factory which the Pulsar range has rolled out will be the spearhead for Indian motorcycling to come in the next decade.”

What was a very important aspect which played out in a most telling manner was also the fact that this year Indian designed and built vehicles from Indian OEMs took the overall honours. The Nano and the Pulsar 135LS were joined by the Mahindra Xylo which took the MPV of the Year Award and this augurs well as our OEMs get up to speed with trying to offer as many cost effective, robust and reliable automobiles built to the unique needs of our consumers.

The ET-ZigWheels Car Maker of the Year Award 2009 went to Tata Motors which displayed uncanny resilience, steely nerves and unimpeachable dedication to not just getting the Tata Nano project shifted and underway at a makeshift facility but the firm also kept plugging away with a host of initiatives. These resulted not just in the Indigo Manza, the new Xenon lifestyle pick-up and the Sumo Grande Mk II but also the Tata World Truck and of course Jaguar Land-Rover. Other car makers may have had larger sales and production volumes, even more profits but in a turbulent year faced by Indian industry, Tata Motors displayed a rare silent approach which saw their efforts speak the loudest.

Hero Honda was adjudged the ET-ZigWheels Bike Maker of the Year 2009 even though it had just one new launch to its name in the year under review. For a company setting the pace in absolute numbers produced and sold, it could be very easy to take the eye off the big ball but Hero Honda remained on song to delivering manna for the masses at the base of the pyramid.

ZigWheels also made use of the wide variety of media under the Times Group to ensure that opinions regarding the awards came from and reached the largest possible audience base. The ZigWheels.com Viewers Choice opinion poll garnered massive response, and the reader-surfers adjudged the Tata Nano as their favourite car. The Viewers Choice Bike of the Year award went to the handsome Royal Enfield Bullet Classic.

CAR CATEGORY SEGMENT WINNERS

Entry level Mini-Car of the Year

Tata Nano – WINNER

Premium Hatchback of the Year

Fiat Grande Punto (Petrol & Diesel) WINNER

Honda Jazz 1.2

Hyundai i20 (1.2 & 1.4 petrol and 1.4 diesel)

Suzuki Ritz (petrol and diesel)

Entry level Sedan of the Year

Tata Indigo Manza WINNER

Fiat Linea

Mid-size sedan of the year

Chevrolet Cruze WINNER

Executive Sedan of the Year

Skoda Superb (petrol and diesel) WINNER

Luxury Prestige Sedan of the Year

Mercedes-Benz E-class WINNER

MPV of the Year

Mahindra Xylo WINNER

SUV of the Year

Toyota Fortuner WINNER

Tata Xenon

Premier Rio

CBU Import of the Year

Audi Q5

Audi R8

BMW 6-series

BMW X6

BMW Z4 WINNER

Jaguar XF & XF-R

Jaguar XK and XK-R

Lamborghini Murcielago LP670-4 SV

Land Rover Discovery

Land Rover Freelander 2

Range Rover Sport

Mercedes-Benz CLS63 AMG

Mercedes-Benz SLK55 AMG

Mercedes-Benz SL63 AMG

Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG

Porsche Panamera

Rolls-Royce Ghost

Toyota Land Cruiser V8

BIKE CATEGORY SEGMENT WINNERS

Scooter of the Year

Honda Activa 110 WINNER

Mahindra Duro

100cc Bike of the Year

Bajaj Discover 100 DTS-Si WINNER

150cc Bike of the Year

Bajaj XCD135 DTS-Si

Bajaj Pulsar 135 DTSi WINNER

TVS Flame SR125

250cc Bike of the Year

Bajaj Kawasaki Ninja 250 WINNER

Hero Honda Karizma ZMR

Bike of the Year above 251cc

Royal Enfield Bullet 500 Classic WINNER

CBU Superbike of the Year

Honda CB1000R Hornet

Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade

Yamaha VMAX WINNER

Special Awards in the CAR segment

Design of the Year – TATA NANO

Best Fun-to-Drive Car of the Year – SKODA SUPERB

Most Value-for-Money Car of the Year – TATA NANO

Automotive Idea of the Year – CARNATION AUTO

Special Awards in the BIKE segment

Technology of the Year –BAJAJ PULSAR 135LS 4-VALVE CYLINDER HEAD

Most Value-for-Money Bike of the Year – BAJAJ DISCOVER 100 DTS-Si

Zigwheels Viewers Choice Awards 2009

Fallen in love with your Hyundai i20 but envy your neighbour’s Karizma? Or want to take your girlfriend on a long ride in Honda Jazz, but had a fight with her as she prefers Pulsar!

It’s again that time of the year when we put you in the driver’s seat. ZigWheels.com, India’s leading automotive website from The Times of India group, is inviting you to poll your choice of the car and bike of 2009 from all those that got launched this year.

Your verdict will decide a winner each in the car and bike category. Trophies and citations will be awarded to the manufacturer whose car/bike cought the imagination of the nation’s heart

The other awards category is for the Jury’s choice of car and bike of the year, which will be adjudged by a jury spearheaded by Adil Jal Darukhanawala, the editor in chief of ZigWheels. The jury will take into account a host of parameters including performance, design, comfort, safety, value etc . The awards in this category will be announced across segments of cars and two-wheelers including ‘Entry level mini car’, ‘Premium hatchback’, ‘ Premium SUV’, ‘Mid Size sedan’, ‘Scooter of the year’, ‘100cc bike of the year’ and many more.

The polling for the consumers awards is on till Monday, 21st December 2009, and the results will be declared in the ZigWheels print edition with Economic Times paper and the site on 24th December 2009.

So, if you strongly think about a bike or a car or want to see your favourite bike/car as a winner, log on to awards.zigwheels.com and cast your vote. Remember, every vote counts. It’s you and only you who is going to decide the winner. So, log on and take control of the polling wheel.

Now, register your domains with Times Internet Limited

Domain business in India is growing @ 35% yearly and the internet business by 30%. SME’s will play a major role in this growth as they would reap the benefits of the current trend. While most technology vendors are witnessing a sharp decline in their revenue because of the cascading effect of the recent recession, domain businesses are scaling up.

Times Internet Limited is now a domain registrar. ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned names and Numbers) has appointed TIL as an accredited domain registrar for the following domains – .com, .net, .info and .org. More information is available on www.domains.indiatimes.com

With this new offering, TIL graduates from being a prominent domain reseller to joining a handful of Indian organizations that have attained the prestigious status of being full fledged registrars. TIL has been in the business of enabling SME & SOHO’s in their online business since many years. By taking this step TIL reiterates its commitment to this ever growing requirement for SME to go online. Globally domain registrations have shown a growth of more than 45% every year.

Booking a Domain is the first step in taking one’s business online and is the first and the most crucial step. Domains name should be descriptive of your products, services or and the name of your organizations and ideally should be short & memorable. It also establishes your online identity and opens many opportunities to increase your customer base if you can create a website on this domain name.

“Our new tool also suggests other related domains which are available and enables you to register . We have attractive schemes and offers which are intended to increase repeat visitors and build patronage amongst are customers. We also offer services which are natural extension of domains like business emails and websites- both customized and standard, this places us uniquely as a one stop destination for our customers. This guarantees quality assurance for consumers, emulating from a strong technology platform & made available at highly competitive prices.” says, Rishi Khiani CEO, Times Internet Limited.

TIL also provides end solutions like business email ids, website hosting solutions, design template and custom made websites, as well as search engine optimization services for customers and is a one stop web solutions company.

TIL is poised to enable SME’s to take their business online and has made considerable investments in this regard. More information is available on http://www.business.indiatimes.com/

Introducing 58888 Follow

Indiatimes 58888 is proud to announce the launch of a new SMS-based service called “58888 Follow” that allows consumers to stay updated on their favorite celebrities, all from their mobile phone. 58888 Follow is incredibly simple to use- the user sends a text message: “Follow [Celebrity’s Name]” (e.g. “Follow Lara”) to 58888, and that’s it. They’ll automatically receive regular updates about the star’s day-to-day happenings. Best of all, the service is free*.

The 58888 Follow team has also worked hard to make sure the experience is as rich as possible for the user. In addition to text updates, the user will get exclusive photos, videos, and audio clips about their celebrity as they unfold. And it’s accessible to all cell phone users in India, through the most recognized short code in the country – 58888.

Simply put, 58888 Follow is the premier method of keeping up with all of your favorite stars, free for anyone in India with a cell phone connection.

Rishi Khiani, CEO of Times Internet Limited, says: “We are always striving to cater to and engage with the youth of India on virtually every medium or device, around the things they care about. For this reason, we are excited to launch a service that will let users stay connected real-time with their favorite stars on the go. 58888 Follow will send across the celeb’s hottest news updates, public appearances, and social interactions as they happen. We hope to expand the service even further as it gains traction.”

TAN Goes Mobile with Vuclip

The Times Audience Network (TAN), the digital video arm of the Times Group, announced today a strategic partnership with Vuclip to make available its entire video library of premium content for mobile users in India. Starting today, users can access premium English news content on their mobile devices from Times Now, business news from ET Now, entertainment news from Zoom and music videos from Times Music, amongst other content partners, through Vuclip’s proprietary real-time transcoding mobile video platform.

Rishi Khiani, CEO of Times Internet Limited, said “The way the product has been designed is to bring the same sense of urgency to news delivery as we have on-air. Vuclip allows users across mobile operators and devices to have access in near real-time to the latest news, entertainment and gossip from TAN’s premium content partners.”

Commenting on the partnership, Nikhil Jakatdar, Vuclip’s CEO, said, “We are thrilled to be working with TAN to power its mobile video content library and make it available to mobile phone users throughout India. We believe that our mobile video platform and real-time transcoding technology is particularly well-suited to enable millions of users to watch whatever video they want, when they want, no matter where they are. “ Beginning today, mobile video for the group channels Times Now, ET Now and Zoom can also be accessed on www.v.timesnow.tv;http://v.etnow.tvand http://v.zoomtv.in. Mobile video for other TAN partners, including Balaji, iStream, Lehren, Desimad, Desihits, amongst others, can be found on www.official.vuclip.com.

TIL No. 1 publisher for online media campaigns, proclaims Neilsen

It’s Ad-vantage Times. We knew it, 11.1 million (Comscore Media Matrix) exclusive Indiatimes members knew it, and now the world knows it.

Media watcher and prominent market surveyor AC Nielsen in a study says Times Internet Limited gets maximum number of hits, which in turn also means that Times Internet Limited gets more online media campaigns than any other portal in India.

About 24 per cent of all online display ad campaigns during June-August 2009 was on Times Internet properties, says Nielsen Online AdRelevance study. Yahoo with 21 per cent was ranked second.

Just as action speaks louder than words, so does the testimonial by our clients.

Manish Vij, Co-Founder & CMO, Quaser Media, “Quasar always believed in the power of display based digital marketing and its potential. Nielsen’s Online AdRelevance study has further added credibility to this. Times Internet is no doubt one of the key players in the domain of digital display advertising and we’ve always partnered with them for critical campaigns we do for leading advertisers. The study points out 24% of all online display ad campaigns during June-August 2009 included Times Internet properties which we think is remarkable number and justifies why partnering the Times Group for digital campaigns is relevant”.

Ravinder Singh, Business Director,Group M, “our association with Times’ Online platforms has been yielding fruitful results, especially after significant content changes across Times Network resulting in matured and involved user base. Times’ Online properties cut across various Target groups, from Youngsters to Professionals to Business Tycoons. It will be difficult to ignore such a strong network from your Online Marketing initiatives”.

Sherry Thomas Joseph, Account Director, Madison says, “Indiatimes differentiates itself for being consistently able to deliver on innovation, integration and audience involvement. It gets a decent share of our online advertising budgets for being able to create relevant media space by integrating the brand message with its product.

Times Internet Limited CEO, Rishi Khiani says, “Times Internet, with its strategic depth across sites, variety in content and a socio-economic register criss-crossing almost every possible demographic, has been on top of its game in 2009.” He added that this has translated into extraordinary numbers in unique visitors, a fact that has made it a win-win situation for advertisers.

Nielsen Online Ad Relevance, which was launched in India in July 2009, is a syndicated online advertising intelligence tool from The Nielsen Company. It helps in the planning & buying of online media and in understanding the composition of the market landscape. Available 24/7, the Nielsen Online AdRelevance interface is updated daily. Besides delivering standard reports such as top 100 websites and top 100 advertisers etc., users can also design custom reports consisting of sectors, advertisers or websites of relevance to them.

The surge in ad booking has been especially noticeable for some of the biggest sectors such as matrimonial, travel, job and education websites. The biggest names in these sectors, be it makemytrip.com or bharatmatrimony.com, they have all made their presence felt advertising on Times Internet Limited sites. .And since they have come back for more, it’s a given that they’ve had a phenomenal response from backing Times Internet Limited’s endeavours. Digital medium is steadily increasing in terms of it user base with the latest number touching 53 million as of April 2009, out of which the rural online user base is 3.3 million. Some industry players are quite upbeat and are eyeing around 150% growth in revenues & user base.

Agrees Karthik Nagarajan, Associate Director, AC Nielson. “Display advertising is expected to substantially expand in India, as internet penetration accelerates and given the substantially lower costs involved in advertising online,” Mr Nagarajan adds.

IndiaTimes to Webcast TEDIndia Sessions, first-ever TED conference in South Asia

A free, live webcast of Day 1 of the TEDIndia conference will be made available to the public via collaboration with The Times Audience Network, the digital video arm of Times Internet Limited.

Watch three TEDIndia sessions live on November 5, and the closing session on November 7. This webcast will be free and open to all. See schedule below (all times India Standard Time):

Thursday, November 5
Session 1: Fast Forward
11am-12:45pm

Session 2: Not Business as Usual
2:15pm-4pm

Session 3: Wonder. Wonders.
4:45pm-6:30pm

Saturday, November 7
Session 9: Within You, Without You
11am-12:45pm

After the conference, the first 5 TEDTalks released from TEDIndia will be premiered on TED.com and Indiatimes.com in parallel.

Post Conference, The first 5 TEDTalks from TEDIndia will be viewable on mobile phones, powered by the Times Audience Network.

“We are pleased to partner with The Times Group for the first-ever TED conference in South Asia, and to live-webcast Day 1 on Indiatimes," says Lakshmi Pratury, the co-host of TEDIndia.”
Rishi Khiani, CEO of Times Internet Limited, says, “The Times Group websites are amongst the most viewed websites in the world in terms of pageviews, because of the quality of featured content. We are very happy to partner with TED for their first-ever TED conference in South Asia."

The live-stream will be available on http://ted.indiatimes.com/ starting November 5th, 2009.
TEDIndia happens Nov. 4-7, 2009, at the Infosys campus in Mysore. Speakers include Tony Hsieh, CEO, Zappos.com; Eve Ensler, playwright and activist; Horst Rechelbacher, the founder of Aveda and Intelligent Nutrients; Charles Anderson, marine biologist; and Scott Cook, the founder of Intuit -- many of whom will be speaking in India for the first time. Indian thought leaders speaking at the conference include Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor, management guru C.K. Prahalad, director Shekhar Kapur, Yogi Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, film actor Abhay Deol and mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik, among others.

With support from Sherpalo Ventures and Google.org, TEDIndia is also welcoming 100 TEDIndia Fellows to the conference -- the largest number of Fellows ever for TED. The TED Fellows are young individuals who have demonstrated remarkable achievement in their fields of endeavor.

In addition to the talks during conference sessions, the pre-conference TED University will give attendees an opportunity to make their own presentations to a select audience. The fast-paced, three-day stage program featuring TED's famous 18-minute talks, the event will also include musical performances by Anil Srinivasan and Sikkil Gurucharan, Usha Uthup and Mukul Deora, and dance from Ananda Shankar, Longinus Fernandes and Sidi Goma. You can find the full, up-to-date speaker lineup at http://conferences.ted.com/TEDIndia.