Facebook ties up with ET to offer live budget feeds

The Economic Times, India's largest and most popular business news paper, ET Now – the newly launched business news TV channel and economictimes.com have joined hands with the leading social networking site, Facebook, to let users share their thoughts with the FM regarding the Union Budget for the financial year 2010-11. The new initiative, “ET-Facebook: Talk to FM”, will give users a unique opportunity to post their views/suggestions on the Budget by logging on to www.economictimes.com. ET will then present the same to the FM and take the voice of the nation to the FM.

“ET-Facebook: Talk to FM” initiative, will give users the unique opportunity to not only post their expectations with the budget but also their views/suggestions after the presentation of the Budget by logging on to www.economictimes.com. The users could now reach out to the Finance Minister, expressing what he could do for various sections of the society, including salaried individuals, households, businesses and for the development of Infrastructure. Views expressed by the readers would be displayed on economictimes.com and also show on the user's Facebook Page. All opinions received through this initiative would be summarized and submitting the Finance Minister.

Here's a chance for people from all walks of life - students, working women, salaried people, businessmen and householders – to influence India's policy makers. Experience virtual power while logging on to economictimes.com and posting Budget suggestions to make Budget 2010 work for everyone!

Speaking about the strategic alliance, Rishi Khiani, CEO of Times Internet Limited, said, "We are happy to associate with Facebook – it's a unique win-win association between the most popular social networking site and India's leading business news portal. We are pioneering popular participation in the preparation of the Budget while providing realtime feedback to the Finance Minister from the vox populi. It's democracy at work! We're quite upbeat - it's a great beginning, allowing millions of Indians to participate and provide feedback, in almost real time to the policy makers on the financial decisions regarding the country"

"All over the world, people use Facebook to start and engage in discussions about things that are important to them. By powering this program with Facebook Connect, the Economic Times is helping provide people in India an easy way to take part in and express their views on the National Budget discussions." said Chamath Palihapitiya, VP of Growth, Mobile and International

Shop for valentines at Indiatimes

Roses, choclates, jewellery, teddy...it's that time of the year when love is in the air and you feel like painting the town in red. With Valentine's Day round the corner, are you still searching for a perfect gift for your valentine which will bowl her/him over?

Indiatimes Shoppping, with its exquisite collection of Valentine’s Day Gifts, makes your job of buying gifts easy. With an astounding variety of gift ideas and products, Indiatimes Shoppping gives you such a wide variety of choice that your beloved will just fall in love with you once again. So, don't hold yourself back. Log in and buy a Valentine Gift @ Indiatimes Shopping & lavish your affection & let your emotions flow towards your sweetheart, friends & family.

ET launches online stock market game

EconomicTimes.com, India’s No.1 Business News and Markets website has launched an online virtual stock market game—Sharebaazi (www.sharebaazi.com) - where investors and traders can play the BSE listed companies without risking their money!And what’s more, one can also get a chance to win weekly and monthly prizes such as laptops, home theatres, portable MP3 players and many more for trading in the virtual stock exchange!

Each participant on Sharebaazi.com gets Rs 10 lakh of virtual money to play the game. The virtual game provides real-time trading environment, so that participants can easily understand the dynamics of the stock market and invest in it without any fear of losing their real money. The game is an initiative from economictimes.com to enable its readers to learn the ropes of the stock market without losing their shirt in the bargain.

A virtual stock-exchange not only helps the beginners to get over the apprehension of investing in shares, it also makes the entire process an exciting and fun-filled experience. It helps them understand market lingo and the nuances of building a winning portfolio of stocks in an interactive manner. For the experts, it’s perfect place to test their skills and show their investment wisdom to everyone by earning maximum profits and wining exciting prizes.

Says Indiatimes CEO,Rishi Khiani,”Stock markets have always been a place where informed choices have made people earn fortunes. In order to make it more democratic so that more people get a chance to invest in India growth story, we have launched a virtual game that makes people learn the nuances of the stock market in a thrilling manner. It also gives players of Sharebaazi a chance to encash their knowledge by winning maximum points and prizes.”

"The Indian Fantasy League is delighted to partner with ET on this stocks & shares game. This is a welcome (and slightly different) addition to our existing portfolio of games on cricket, football, tennis & golf and we hope our players will now enjoy a larger play canvas", says Tarun Chaudhry, marketing head of IFL.

So beginners, get over all fears of losing hard-earned money in stock market. And experts, flaunt your investment expertise to the world. Come and play at sharebaazi - a perfect platform to play virtual stock market game.

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.