BRIEFS

ZEE NEWS WANTS INTERNATIONAL SET UP

The Zee Network is to set up bureaus in 14 Indian cities which will be connected by V-Sats for its recently relaunched Zee News. News bureaus are also slated to come up in Dhaka, Rawalpindi, Karachi, Dubai, New York, Los Angeles and Johanesberg. Zee News already has desks in Kathmandu and London. The channel is to have an international orientation and chairman Subhash Chandra has announced that he is interested in launching an Asia wide news channel in the not-too-distant future. Zee News is to be introduced in America, Europe and Africa soon. The channel has also got itself a new head in the form of Rajiv Tewari who was earlier with the media group, The Indian Express.

STARTUP PROMOTES INTERNET TV DEVICE

Bangalore-based Innomedia Technologies is promoting a new technology called Chois (Cable TV-based home and office interactive services). The company floated by a technologist, Mohan Tambe, earlier with the Pune-based Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, is marketing a device called a Choispad to help users convert their TVs into interactive devices, apart from allowing Web surfing on a PC simultaneously. Tambe has deployed his Chois technology in 15 cable TV headends in Bangalore and Mysore passing more than 100,000 cable TV homes.

FORMER I&B MINISTER COMES TO BJP FOREFRONT

Former I&B minister Sushma Swaraj who had been relegated to the wilderness after her party, the BJP, lost in the Delhi state elections has made a comeback. Swaraj has been appointed as a BJP spokesperson to help fine tune its image before the forthcoming elections.

CORDIANT TO INVEST IN INDIAN AD AGENCY

UK agency Cordiant Communications has got clearance from the Foreign Investment Promotions Board to set up a holding company in India. The company has proposed to invest a sum of Rs 72 million in its India joint venture Bates Clarion.