UK pubcaster The BBC’s digital radio station BBC Asian Network has announced the appointment of British-Asian music pioneer Mark Strippel, aka Markie Mark, as the head of music for the station. Strippel takes up the appointment immediately.

He broadcasts on the Asian Network and on BBC 1Xtra. The BBC says that he is a well-known figure within the British music industry and amongst the public from being a member of Punjabi Hit Squad (PHS). The group formed in 2001 and have been at the forefront of taking British-Asian music to a wider audience through a fusion of bhangra with hiphop.

Strippell said, “I welcome the opportunity to be able to bring some real depth and cutting edge to the playlist at Asian Network, both in daytime and the new specialist shows. There will be a noticeable change in tone of the station’s music policy, with a greater emphasis on homegrown talent, providing a platform for unsigned or independent British-Asian artists, and greater year-round support for live music. Asian Network has a key responsibility to play in uplifting the British-Asian music scene across all its genres.”

The head of music role was created by the station late last year, along with the head of news, network co-ordinator and new assistant editor roles, as part of the evolution of the station under Controller Bob Shennan’s management.

The final decision was made by a panel including Bob Shennan and Asian Network managing editor Vijay Sharma.

BBC Asian Network’s Bob Shennan said, “Mark’s appointment is crucial to the new direction of the Asian Network, and the final part of a very very strong management team. He has an important role in reviewing our music policy and connecting with the talent in the thriving British-Asian music scene.”

The key tasks for Strippel will be to make music on the Asian Network more cutting-edge; to build and maintain relationships within the mainstream/Asian music industry; and to build on the station’s commitment to live British-Asian music. Being white and a specialist in British-Asian music, Strippel breaks stereotypes and preconceived ideas about the type of people who listen to Asian music adds the BBC.

New York, Jan 18: `Friendly bacteria` found in yoghurt has been genetically modified by researchers in the US to produce a drug that blocks HIV infection.

Although the bacteria has only been tested in a lab dish, scientists are optimistic that the technique could provide a cheaper and more effective way of delivering drugs to fight the spread of aids, by getting the bugs to live right where the drugs are needed most, nature magazine reported.

The bacterium (lactococcus lactis) the researchers have modified naturally produces lactic acid, and so is used to produce cheese and yoghurt. It is also found in some parts of the human anatomy, including the gut and the vagina, where the acid it produces damps down the growth of other, harmful bacteria, nature said.

Some `probiotic` yoghurts are loaded with such beasties with the aim of keeping consumers` guts healthy.

Bharat Ramratnam, an HIV specialist at Brown Medical School, providence, Rhode Island, and his colleagues, Nature says, have now altered the genetic make-up of l.Lactis so that it generates cyanovirin, a drug that has prevented HIV infection in monkeys and human cells, and is on track for human trials in 2007.

Cyanovirin binds to sugar molecules attached to the HIV virus, blocking a receptor that HIV uses to infect cells.

“It`s basically passive immunization,” Sean Hanniffy, a molecular biologist at the Institute of Food Research, Norwich, UK, and part of the team, is quoted by Nature as saying.

Gels containing cyanovirin could afford some protection for women against the transmission of HIV, but since the drug breaks down quickly these would have to be smeared in the vagina immediately before sex. “In some countries there`s a reluctance to use these gels frequently,” explains Hanniffy.

Because lactic-acid bacteria live naturally in the vagina, one application of a bacterial goop should see the modified bugs thrive there for at least a week, says Hanniffy.

“The next step might be to use other bacteria that can survive for even longer,” he adds.

Johannesurg, Jan 18: A South African inventor has developed an anti-malaria wristwatch to help combat one of Africa`s biggest killers by monitoring the blood of those who wear it and sounding an alarm when the parasite is detected.

Gervan Lubbe said his “Malaria Monitor” wristwatch, due to launch next month, could save lives and keep millions out of hospital by heading off the disease before patients even feel ill.

“It picks up the parasite and destroys it so early that the possibility of dying is absolutely zero and you don`t even feel the early cold symptoms,” Lubbe told Reuters in a telephone interview this week.

Malaria, caused by a parasite carried by mosquitoes, kills more than a million people every year and makes 300 million seriously ill, according to the World Health Organization. Ninety percent of deaths are in sub-Saharan Africa.

The sturdy digital timepiece pricks the wrist with a tiny needle four times a day and tests the blood for malaria parasites.

If the parasite count tops 50 an alarm sounds and a brightly-colored picture of a mosquito flashes on the watch face. The wearer must take three tablets that kill all traces of the disease within 48 hours.

Lubbe was approached by a major mining company to develop the device after it found high levels of malaria among workers in Africa was hurting productivity.

“If you wait until you get symptoms and a malaria diagnosis you can be in bed for six months and have to take huge quantities of quinine which can be dangerous,” Lubbe said.

His company Gervans Trading has already received 1.5 million orders for the wristwatch from companies, governments and aid organization working in Africa, he said.

The watch will cost around 1,700 rand ($280), which Lubbe says is cheaper than treating a patient with severe malaria.

It also means people working or traveling in malarial areas can avoid taking expensive anti-malaria tablets which can come with nasty side effects.

Mining companies can monitor miners by making them walk through a scanner each day. The watch`s radio frequency will transmit the wearer`s information to a central computer so health departments can ensure people at risk take tablets.

Lubbe said several African governments and the World Health Organization had expressed interest in distributing the watch in rural Africa where access to treatment is scarce.

Lubbe, 38, won a gold medal for the world`s best medical invention at the International Inventions Show in Geneva in 1998 for a pain relief device.

Mumbai, Jan 18: The index heavyweight counter Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) today created history of sorts when it clocked a volume of about Rs 1,400 crore in a special one-hour trading session on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

Reliance Energy Q3 net up 22.66%

The stock discovered a price of Rs 714.19 per share at the special session and closed at provisional Rs 715.25 on the BSE.

The new price of the scrip on national stock exchange was fixed at Rs 714.39 per share and its provisional closing prices was Rs 714.90 per share, brokers said.

The discovered price is calculated as volume weighted average on the one-hour special trading session.

The company has beaten the market expectations of Rs 700 per share and traded at higher levels in the historic trading session, convened by the bourses to discover the post-demerger scrip price.

The brisk activity in RIL trading will have good impact on the market sentiment during the normal trading session today, brokers added.

The trades done for RIL during the session will be taken into account for the normal settlement of January 18.

The spin-off of RIL`s interests in financial, utilities and telecom into four new entities is part of a settlement between the Ambani brothers.

The Bombay High Court had cleared the company`s petition for sanctioning the scheme of arrangement for the demerger on December nine, last year.

RIL is expected to continue to perform well even after the demerger as a fully-integrated petroleum-to-petrochemicals conglomerate.

New Delhi, Jan 18: The issue of Jammu and Kashmir will be taken up when Foreign Secretaries of both India and Pakistan meet for the final day of the third round of the Composite Dialogue Process (CDP) here today.

Yesterday, India proposed to Pakistan two new Confidence-Building Measures (CBMs), including holding of Brigade Commander-level flag meetings and not developing new defence installations along the Line of Control (LOC), and conveyed its intention to extend the Munabao-Khokrapar rail link to Ajmer Sharief.

The two-day talks between Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and his Pakistani counterpart Riaz Mohammed Khan reviewed the second round of the CDP and focussed on the issues of peace and security, building of mutual trust and confidence and reduction of ‘’trustdeficit.'’

Briefing reporters on the outcome of the first day’s deliberations, External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said the two sides had made ‘’very posiive assessments'’ of the developments and the ‘’milestones'’ that had been achieved in the second round of the CDP.

The last decade has witnessed a lot of controversy around foreign telecasting companies (FTCs) telecasting their TV channels in India, from a tax and regulatory perspective. With the growing number of channels in India, the Government of India has felt the need, in the recent past, to regulate, among other things, the content being telecast by FTCs.

Now, The Information and Broadcasting Ministry today allowed 100 per cent Foreign Direct Investment in uplinking of television channels in the non-news category and 26 per cent for news channels.

The government on Tuesday released the notification for the revised guidelines of foreign direct investment (FDI) in uplinking of TV channels. The notification was issued on December 2, 2005. The new guidelines allow up to 26% in news and current affairs channels and 100% in channels of general interest. Earlier, up to 49% was permitted for setting up hardware and uplinking hubs.

For the news channels, the government has put the condition that portfolio investment in the form of FII and NRI deposits shall not be persons acting in concert with FDI investors as defined by Securities and Exchange Board of India.

FDI for uplinking a non-news and current affairs TV channel has been set at 100% and FDI (including investment by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), up to 26% would be permitted in news channels, subject to the condition that the portfolio investment in the form of FII/NRI deposits should not be persons acting in concert with FDI investors, as defined in the SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 1997.

For setting up-linking hub and teleports the government has allowed FDI of 49 per cent. The Ministry said that as in print media, even for TV news channels the limit should be capped at 26 percent. The TV news channels might be allowed to mobilise foreign investment through Investments by FIIs, Overseas Corporate Bodies, Persons of Indian Origin and Nonresident Indians.

Ministry had also recommended that ordinary news and non-news channels could be uplinked through KU band, channels are uplinking through the C-Band and only direct-to-home (DTH) operators use Ku-band.

The company permitted to uplink the channel, shall certify the compliance of this requirement through the company secretary at the end of each financial year.
While calculating foreign equity of the applicant company, the foreign holding component, if any, in the equity of the Indian shareholder companies of the applicant company will be duly reckoned on pro-rata basis, so as to arrive at the total foreign holding in the applicant company. However, the indirect FII equity in a company as on March 31 of the year would be taken for the purposes of pro-rata reckoning of foreign holdings.

Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide (Ogilvy PR) has appointed Orlando Camargo President of Ogilvy PR Japan. Ogilvy PR in Japan includes the firm known as IBI.

Camargo, senior public relations professional who has worked both as an agency head and a top in-house communications role, will greatly strengthen the PR division of Ogilvy & Mather Japan, which has been known as IBI.

Previously, Mr. Camargo was Vice President, Director of Corporate Communications at Goldman Sachs, a leading global investment bank, in Japan for 6 years. In that position, he oversaw media relations, marketing and branding, and internal communications for its Tokyo office and related companies in Japan. From 1997 to 2000, he worked for Fleishman-Hillard Japan as Vice President, Senior Managing Director, where he was one of the four founding members of its Japan office. Camargo has developed his deep understanding and experience with Japan as he started with his career working as a research associate for National Institute of Science and Technology Policy, then as a management consultant for Asia Advisory Service where he worked with the renowned scholar Dr. James C. Abegglen.

Chris Graves, President (Asia Pacific) of Ogilvy PR Worldwide, said “Orlando has strong client-side experience with one of the world’s most respected financial services firms, but also has substantial agency experience. He is fluent not only in Japanese language, but also in culture as well. He is the right person at the right time to grow our public relations business in Japan while simultaneously connecting into our powerful financial PR business across Asia.”

Ogilvy PR has financial PR specialists working in mergers & acquisitions (such as the giant Lenovo-IBM deal), IPOs, and investor relations. Recently, Ogilvy PR acquired one of the leading financial PR firms in Hong Kong (iPR) that handles the communications for nearly a quarter of all listings there.

“A key differentiator of the entire Ogilvy Group is its seamless work across all disciplines, Orlando will be working closely with his Ogilvy colleagues in advertising, direct marketing, and internet communications to offer clients the very best 360 Degree Brand Stewardship to drive their revenues.” said Mark Blair, President of Ogilvy & Mather Japan, K.K.

Camargo first came to live in Japan as a fellow with the then Ministry of Education, Science and Culture (Monbusho) in 1983. In 1989, he made history as the first non-Japanese to be hired by the Science and Technology Agency of Japan as a civil servant researcher. He holds a masters degree in Economics from the University of Tsukuba, Japan and is a graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology (US). Camargo grew up in New York City, speaks Japanese and Spanish.

US based Airwide Solutions said its plans to setup a sales office and R&D centre in Gurgaon to service the Indian and Asia Pacific markets, according to a media statement.

“Value-added services in the Indian mobile market will boom with the introduction of 3G roll outs in 200708. India is the second largest market in the world and we intend to leverage India’s R&D strength for product development,” said Amit Nagpal, general manager India operations, Airwide Solutions.

“We developed the world’s first SMS and sent the first message with Vodafone in 1992, which is till today the most successful non-voice service in wireless history and deployed the first application-to-person MMS in 2003, creating a new revenue stream for operators and an exciting new entertainment and information channel for consumers,” said Rajive Chandra, regional director, Asean.

While the investment amount was not disclosed, the company’s new R&D centre (and its third) will staff between 100-150 people and is expected to com mence operations in March this year. Additionally, the company will also look at setting up sales offices in four other locations in India in another two to three years time.

George Zacharias has been appointed as Managing Director, Yahoo! India. He will be reporting to John Marcom, Senior Vice-President, International Operations, effective January 30, 2006.

“We are delighted to have an executive of George’s caliber join Yahoo Yahoo! proves to be very successful when we combine local insight and understanding with our global platforms and capabilities. George will draw on our powerful reserves of technology and creativity to help keep Yahoo! in the forefront of this market.” Marcom said.

Commenting on his new assignment, Zacharias said, “India is a dynamic and fastest-growing market. I look forward to helping Yahoo! as it continues to forge ahead and take significant strides in expanding its operations in India.”

Neville Taraporewalla, Country General Manager of Yahoo!’s Mumbai-based India operations, will report to Zacharias. Taraporewalla currently oversees running of the Yahoo.co.in website. Yahoo India, under Taraporewalla’s leadership reinforced its management team, rolled out new and improved products and developed a strong talent pool. Internet usage in India continues to grow at a rapid pace and Yahoo! looks forward to a growing presence in the market under the new leadership team.

Zacharias moves to Yahoo! from Sify, where he was President and Chief Operating Officer since 2000. Prior to joining Sify, Zacharias had spent 16 years in a variety of sales, marketing and export assignments at Madura Coats in Bangalore. In 1997, he was appointed President of Madura Garments, a leading garment/retail company in India, then a division of Madura Coats. As President of Madura Garments, Zacharias was responsible for $23 million in business, which he grew to $55 million in annual revenues in two and a half years. Zacharias graduated from Nagpur University with a degree in Chemical Engineering in 1980 and from XLRI, Jamshedpur with a PGDBM in 1982.

The Starcom MediaVest Group will launch its operations in Sri Lanka in February 2006. Starcom aims to bring to the market a completely new concept in media specialisation, the promise of fuelling brand power. Sri Lankan operations will be the network’s 111th office, while, Sri Lanka is the 68th country that the Starcom MediaVest Group is entering.

Starcom’s entry into Sri Lanka will bring to the market a complete set of media processes and tools, which are in line with the emerging global trends in media planning and buying, as well as the other holistic requirements of the local and international companies that have their operations in Sri Lanka. Starcom, Sri Lanka, will be established as an independent company, but will be supported by Leo Burnett Solutions, the marketing communication company in Sri Lanka.

Talking about the expansion, Ravi Kiran, CEO, Starcom, South Asia, says, “We believe that the Sri Lankan media market is evolving fast. As consumer choices grow and marketers are faced with greater opportunities and challenges in the dynamic marketplace, we aim to bring our international expertise to the market. The Starcom MediaVest Group has been in India for five years now and we hope that our Sri Lankan operation will be as successful as our global and Indian operations. Since we are one of the few media networks to launch operations in Sri Lanka, it is an important step in maintaining the long-term competitive advantage in the country.”

In Sri Lanka, Starcom will be headed by its CEO, Sushruta Samanta. Samanta has experience spanning eight years in companies such as Carat, MindShare, Zee Network and AC Nielsen-ORG MARG. Talking about his new role, Samanta remarks, “The economy of Sri Lanka has bounced back after the catastrophic tsunami in 2004 and is pulsating to the sounds of a consumer centric marketplace. We hope to do good work there.”

Starcom, Sri Lanka, will use Starcom’s proprietary processes and tools and its staff will be given specialised training in various aspects of media.