iWorld
PM Modi live-streams new ideas to youth
NEW DELHI: Drawing a parallel between the five years between 1942 (Quit India call) and 1947 (independence) to the period from 2017 to 2022 when the country will mark 75 years of freedom, the prime minister Narendra Modi has called upon the ‘online world’ to contribute innovatively for building of the New India.
The radio broadcast was visually adapted by Doordarshan and other private TV and news channels in India and broadcast simultaneously. Similarly, radio in the private sector patched AIR. All DTH platforms also carried it. It was telecast on DD News, DD National, DD Bharati, DD Urdu and DD Kisan.
It was live streamed for global audience and is accessible through mobile app, All India Radio Live.
During his 34th Mann ki Baat broadcast from All India Radio, he said he would “particularly like to call upon the online world, since wherever we may be, we are almost always online; so I would like to invite the online community and specially my young friends to come forward and contribute innovatively.”
In the broadcast which was also shown on Doordarshan channels with relevant archival footage with reference to the freedom struggle, Modi said the young can use technology – videos, posts, blogs, scripts, novel ideas – to put forward all these. He wanted the young to “transform this campaign into a people’s movement”.
He said: “A Quit India Quiz is also being launched for my young friends on NarendraModiApp. This quiz is an attempt to familiarise the youth with India’s glorious history and the heroes of the freedom movement. It is my belief that you will surely publicise and spread awareness about this quiz”.
The broadcast was originated by All India Radio, Delhi, and was by all AIR stations, all AIR FM channels (FM Gold and FM Rainbow), local radio stations, Vividh Bharati stations and five community radio stations.
The regional versions of the Mann Ki Baat were originated by the capital AIR stations in non- Hindi speaking zones and broadcast immediately after the Hindi broadcast, and repeated at 8 pm last night. The regional versions were relayed by all AIR stations including local radio stations in the respective states.
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iWorld
Bill Ackman makes a $64bn bid for Universal Music Group
The hedge fund boss wants to list the world’s biggest record label in New York and thinks he knows exactly what ails it
NEW YORK: Bill Ackman wants to buy the world’s biggest record label. Pershing Square Capital Management, the hedge fund run by the billionaire investor, submitted a non-binding proposal on Tuesday to acquire all outstanding shares of Universal Music Group in a business combination transaction worth roughly $64.4 billion (around 55.8 billion euros).
Under the terms of the offer, UMG shareholders would receive 9.4 billion euros in cash, equivalent to 5.05 euros per share, plus 0.77 shares of a newly created company, dubbed New UMG, for each share held. Pershing Square values the total package at 30.40 euros per share, a 78 per cent premium to UMG’s closing price on April 2.
The deal would see UMG merge with Pershing Square SPARC Holdings, with the combined entity incorporating as a Nevada corporation and listing on the New York Stock Exchange. New UMG would publish financial statements under US GAAP and become eligible for S&P 500 index inclusion. Pershing Square says the transaction is expected to close by year-end, with all equity financing backstopped by Ackman’s firm and its affiliates, and all debt financing committed at signing. The transaction would cancel 17 per cent of UMG’s outstanding shares, leaving New UMG with 1.541 billion shares outstanding.
Ackman has a long history with UMG. Pershing Square first bought approximately 10 per cent of the company from Vivendi in the summer of 2021 for around $4 billion, around the time of UMG’s listing on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange. He has since trimmed that position, raising around $1.4 billion from the sale of a 2.7 per cent stake in March 2025, and resigned from UMG’s board in May 2025, citing new executive and board obligations arising from recent investments.
His diagnosis of UMG’s troubles is blunt. The company’s stock has fallen around 33 per cent over the past twelve months on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange, and Ackman lays out six reasons why. These include uncertainty around the Bolloré Group’s 18 per cent stake in the company, the postponement of UMG’s US listing, the underutilisation of UMG’s balance sheet, the absence of a publicly disclosed capital allocation plan and earnings algorithm, a failure to reflect UMG’s 2.7 billion euro stake in Spotify in its valuation, and what Ackman calls suboptimal shareholder investor relations, communications and engagement.
The Bolloré stake has long cast a shadow over the company. Cyrille Bolloré stepped down from UMG’s board in July 2025 as the Bolloré Group battled the French financial markets regulator over its stake in Vivendi, which holds a further capital interest in UMG. UMG had confidentially filed a draft registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in July 2025 for a proposed secondary listing in America, but put those plans on hold in March 2026, citing market conditions.
Ackman has kind words for UMG’s management, at least. “Since UMG’s listing, Lucian Grainge and the company’s management have done an excellent job nurturing and continuing to build a world-class artist roster and generating strong business performance,” he said. But he made his diagnosis plain: “UMG’s stock price has languished due to a combination of issues that are unrelated to the performance of its music business and importantly, all of them can be addressed with this transaction.”
In other words, Ackman believes UMG is a great business trapped inside a broken structure. If the board agrees, he intends to fix that, loudly and in New York.
