News Broadcasting
Samsung Manesar plant rolls out GSM phone
MUMBAI: Samsung Telecommunication, one of the fastest growing handset companies with global leadership in design and technology, has finally started production of its GSM handsets at its Manesar plant in Gurgaon, Haryana.
The product that marked the roll out, SGH X-200, is a flip open phone weighing 77 gm, X-200 is loaded with Tri Band facility, IrDA Connectivity, SMS/ EMS / MMS, JAVA (MIDP 2.0) / WAP 1.2.1, 40 Polyphonic sound and 65k Colour LCD Screen. The phone also has a loudspeaker, a sound recorder which records messages for 30 seconds duration and large memory space to store 1000 entries, states an official release.
Flagging off this unit, Samsung Telecommunication India MD H. C. Ryu said, “Indian GSM phone market is growing at over 60 per cent every year and Samsung is strategically planning to be one of the leading players in this sector. Our new manufacturing unit at Manesar is a major step in this direction which will not only provide us the price advantage to produce locally but will also reduce time to market our new models.”
Set up with an investment of US$ 15 million, this fully automated and highly sophisticated manufacturing unit will manufacture 1 million handsets per annum, which will be stepped up to produce 20 million units per annum by 2010, the release adds.
Also in the pipeline are plans to manufacture an array of Samsung GSM handsets at Manesar. All these products will be customised with the help of Samsung India Software Operations unit (SISO), Samsung’s R&D Centre located at Bangalore.
Being Samsung’s third overseas handset manufacturing facility in the world after China and Brazil, this unit will cater to local markets need and act as manufacturing hub for South West Asia.
Outlining Samsung’s future plans, Ryu said, “We are highly bullish on the Indian market. With production going on stream, we are now going to expand our product portfolio, work heavily on product localization, invest more in marketing campaigns and expand our distribution network. This is our effort to come closer to the Indian consumers where we will continue to provide them with technological and design innovations in mobile phones.”
News Broadcasting
News TV viewership jumps 33 per cent as West Asia war draws audiences
BARC Week 8 data shows news share rising to 8 per cent despite T20 World Cup
NEW DELHI:Â Even as individual television news channel ratings remain under a temporary pause, the genre itself is seeing a clear surge in audience attention.
According to the latest data from Broadcast Audience Research Council India, television news recorded a 33 per cent jump in genre share in Week 8 of 2026, covering February 28 to March 6.
The news genre accounted for 8 per cent of total television viewership during the week, up from 6 per cent the previous week. The spike in attention coincided with escalating geopolitical tensions involving the United States, Israel and Iran, which have kept global headlines firmly fixed on West Asia.
The rise is notable because it came at a time when cricket was dominating television screens. The high-stakes stages of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, including the Super 8 fixtures and semi-finals, were being broadcast during the same period.
Despite the cricket frenzy, viewers appeared to be toggling between sport and global affairs, boosting the overall share of news programming.
The surge in genre share comes even as the government has enforced a one-month pause on publishing ratings for individual news channels. The move followed regulatory scrutiny of the television ratings ecosystem.
While channel-level rankings remain temporarily out of sight, the genre-level data suggests that when global tensions escalate, audiences continue to turn to television news for real-time updates.
