Indian cinema Industry @ Cannes

Indian movie actors and a new wave of directors are on a mission at the Cannes film festival – to show that their industry, which turns 100 this year, is more than just Bollywood.The largest Indian contingent to date is on the French Riviera at the world’s leading cinema showcase to promote their country, which has the world’s biggest film industry, making over 1,000 films a year compared to about 600 in Hollywood.Movies from Mumbai-based Bollywood and other regional India films have struggled at the global box office with Indian cinema largely dismissed as lengthy, song-and-dance numbers.

The Indian Cinema industry sees the 66th Cannes festival, where India is “guest country” to mark its centenary, as a chance to showcase a new genre of Indian movies globally and to promote India as a place to both make films and win a massive audience.The Indian visitors to Cannes are also keen to lure investment to their film industry, which is forecast to grow to $5 billion by 2014 from $3.2 billion in 2010, according to a report by Ernst & Young. India’s presence has been high-profile since the start of the 12-day festival with acting legend Amitabh Bachchan on the red carpet on opening night to mark his Hollywood debut in Baz Luhrmann’s “The Great Gatsby” alongside Leonardo DiCaprio.Actress Vidya Balan also walked the red carpet in the pouring rain that night as one of nine members of a jury led by U.S. filmmaker Steven Spielberg that will decide the coveted Palme D’Or award for best picture on the final day, May 26.A gala dinner to mark Indian cinema’s centenary was due to be held on Sunday and attended by a list of stars including actresses Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Sonam Kapoor and Freida Pinto.There is no Indian film in either of the two main competitions at Cannes. The last Indian film selected to vie for the coveted Palme D’Or was “Swaham” in 1994 while “Udaan” competed in Un Certain Regard for emerging filmmakers in 2010.But four Indian films will be screened – “Monsoon Shootout”, another thriller “Ugly”, a tribute to the industry centenary called “Bombay Talkies”, and love story “Dabba” (Lunchbox).In 2011 India saw a 42 percent jump in the number of Hollywood movies shot there with several Hollywood studios such as Disney , News Corp’s Fox , and Sony <6758.T> entering deals with or buying stakes in Indian companies.There has also been a surge in the number of Hollywood movies released in India, where 3.6 billion film tickets were sold last year. Hollywood studios have been releasing their films in India simultaneously with their North American releases and also dubbing films in various regional Indian languages.

 

 

 

India’s Food Security Bill(FSB) – too much expensive

India’s plan to give millions cheap food will cost more than its forecast of Rs 1.3 trillion (USD 23.8 billion) a year and will accelerate inflation, a leading adviser on food issues for the government said in an interview.The bill aims to provide subsidized wheat and rice to 70 percent of the 1.2 billion people in India, home to 25 percent of the world’s hungry poor, according to a UN agency, despite being one of the biggest producers of food supplies.The Congress party, which leads the coalition government, is pushing to pass the National food Security Bill before elections, which are due by May 2014.But the government’s own estimates say the bill would increase India’s annual food subsidy by 45 percent, threatening to add to an already hefty fiscal deficit. Critics say it is little more than an attempt to divert attention from corruption scandals involving the government. Calculation is that (Rs 1.25 trillion) is front-end subsidy. There are many costs that have not been counted.Food Minister KV Thomas has said the bill could cost Rs 1.2-1.3 trillion a year. The budget for the current year ending March 31, 2014 sets aside Rs 900 billion as the bill still awaits passage by parliament. Gulati, who advises the government on prices to pay farmers for their crops, said large-scale state grain purchases to meet commitments under the bill would lead to higher inflation.

 

Ybrant Digital’s collaborative acquisitions

Ybrant Digital always focus on growth, both organic and inorganic. Company’s growth has been enormous in the last five years and its inorganic growth has also important role to play in this. Ybrant digital’s business expansion through acquisitions and mergers had gone extremely good and strategic than any other company with 90% success rate. Following are the key acquisitions Ybrant underwent in the recent years.

- Ybrant acquired Lycos for US$ 36 million in 2010, which is now its wholly-owned subsidiary.Lycos is the leading search-based Internet media and broadband content provider. It averages 12-15 monthly unique visitors a month in the US and is a top-25 Internet destination, reaching 60 million unique visitors globally.

- Ordian is Ybrant’s international ad network brand, conducting local sales and site-specific representation in Europe, North America, Latin America, Israel, Argentina, Germany, India and the UK. It is accredited by the Internet Advertising Sales House (IASH) and enables premium websites to monetize their international traffic in more than 40 countries.

- Ad Dynamix is an interactive ad network offering customized campaigns and conducts advertisement deliveries for the US market and specializes in performance-based advertising.

- MediosOne has an online ad network in South America, Europe and India and assists advertisers, publishers and agencies with graphical and contextual banners. It aids in demographic targeting and reaching out to users native languages.

- Dream ad is a leading ad network company specialized in Internet media and possesses an exclusive sales house for Microsoft advertising in Latin America.

- Max Interactive specializes in banner based web advertising and mobile. This strategic acquisition has helped Ybrant enter the attractive AsiaPacific market.

 

Food Bill quandary in Indian Parliament

The government which introduced amendments to the landmark Food Security Bill in the Lok Sabha could not get it passed as opposition stalled proceedings in the House over killing of Sarabjit Singh in Pakistan and other issues.Food Minister K V Thomas moved amendments to the National Food Security Bill, which was originally introduced in Parliament in December 2011, but no discussion on it could take place as the Opposition-led by BJP persisted with protest over Sarabjit Singh’s death.The cause was also not helped as other members raised issued like Chinese incursion and coalgate scam, forcing adjournment of the House for the day without passage of the measure.Major changes in this bill include doing away with priority and general classifications of beneficiaries and providing uniform allocation of 5 kg food grains (per person) at fixed rate of of Rs 3 (rice), Rs 2 (wheat) and Rs 1 (coarse grains) per kg to 67 per cent of the country’s population. Protection to 2.43 crore poorest of poor families under the Antodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) to supply of 35 kg food grains per month per family would continue.That apart, nutritional support to pregnant women without limitation are among other changes proposed in the Bill. At the proposed coverage of entitlement, total estimated annual foodgrains requirement is 61.23 million tonnes and is likely to cost the exchequer Rs 1,24,724 crore.

 

Ybrant Digital’s campaign analysis

Ybrant Digital’s technological up-gradations and utilization has no boundaries. Following are the few points which explains ybrant’s technological edge over the other digital marketing companies…..

- Ybrant’s campaign analysis optimizes customer response rates and targets the right customer

mix to achieve desired target goals.

-Ybrant Digital uses proprietary technology and data analysis capabilities to track, store and

measure website data used for improving campaign performance.

- Ybrant’s ad serving system enables it to provide campaign data to clients through comprehensive

online performance reports, which helps them in evaluating campaign effectiveness across multiple dimensions

.- Ybrant Digital’s ability to conduct ongoing advertising campaigns helps in simultaneous data collection and

storage in its data warehouse. This data is analysed to structure it for targeted advertising campaigns to

enable clients to reach the desired results.

 

BRIC’s – New tourist Destinations

BRIC countries will emerge as new destinations with growth of tourist arrivals from crisis-ridden Europe being stagnated, Secretary General of United Nations World Tourism Organisation opined.The international tourist arrivals, which has touched 1.035 billion (that represents more than one trillion dollars in revenue term excluding travelling cost) with 4 per cent growth over 2011, may witness a growth of 3.5 to 4 per cent this year, “Europe is one of the most important sources of tourism in the world.They send lot of tourists. When their economy becomes complicated the world economy becomes complicated,” Rifai told PTI on the sidelines of a conference “But fortunately the world tourism is compensated by the new areas such as China, Russia, India and Brazil. These are the emerging destinations sending more and more tourists making up to some extent of the drop in demand that is caused in Europe. UNWTO Commission’s Conference on Sustainable Tourism Development and 25th Joint Meeting of the UNWTO Commission for East Asia, Pacific and South Asia began in Hyderabad, India. Dr. K. Chiranjeevi, (Union Tourism Minister of India)  said the whole world is going to experience more modest growth – may be half a point to one point less than the last year in tourist arrivals.When you have high rates of growth year after year the rates of growth tend to become smaller and smaller,” Chiranjeevi said when asked about the expected drop in international tourists arrivals this year.

 

 

 

Digital Advertising accrues, Briton tops.

Advertising spending on the internet jumped 12.5 percent in Britain last year, defying a flagging economy as companies battled to reach consumers spending more time on smartphones and tablet computers.The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced through a study conducted by PwC showed spending on online advertising reached 5.42 billion pounds in 2012.The study, which used data from companies that had provided information the previous year, said internet ad spending rose 607 million pounds on 2011, with some 323 million pounds due to an increase in mobile advertising.Britain has led the way in moving advertising from traditional areas like newspapers and radio to the internet. A high take up of broadband and the rise of smartphones and tablet computers which allow users to access the internet on the go have helped the shift.

With around two-thirds of Britons owning a smartphone as of December 2012, mobile advertising now accounts for almost 10 percent of all digital ad spending, compared with about 1 percent in 2009.Video advertising grew 46 percent to 160 million pounds, accounting for 12 percent of online and mobile display in 2012.Demand for mobile ads is likely to increase after auctions for next-generation 4G airwaves earlier this year, which are set to deliver speeds more than five times faster than 3G services. These services will make downloading high-resolution video easier and enable better multi-tasking on the latest smartphones and tablets.The consumer goods sector overtook the finance sector as the biggest spender on digital display advertising – accounting for almost 16 percent of display ad spend in 2012.