A young PR agency founded by a 26-year entrepreneur was yesterday named ‘Newcomer Company of the Year’ at Asian Voice newspaper’s annual Public & Political Life Awards.
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The Financial Times newspaper’s US economic editor, Krishna Guha, is leaving to join the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
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Rumours that BBC Asian Network is going to be shut down have grown stronger today after a report leaked to the The Times newspaper.

The corporation is due to announce an overhaul of services next month.

The newspaper reported this morning that BBC director-general Mark Thompson will signal that ‘an era of expansion’ would be over. One of the drastic cuts to be recommended would be shutting down BBC Asian Network entirely.
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“They’re smart, they’re ambitious and they’re everywhere” — they are India’s mobile elite of professionals, making their mark as engineers, bankers, entrepreneurs and executives across the world.

In a new series for BBC Radio 4, producer and presenter Mukti Jain Campion finds out what lies behind their success and the impact they are making in India as well as abroad.
The three part series will be aired between Monday March 1st and Wednesday March 3rd at 11am.
Listen online for 7 days after broadcast

The Scotland based comedy Fags, Mags & Bags has returned to Radio 4 for the third time after picking up awards for its quirky humour and good writing (episode below).

The series is written by and stars Sanjeev Kohli, as newsagent and confectioner Ramesh Majhu.
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Indian media conglomerate Viacom18’s Hindi entertainment channel Colors has been launched on Sky digital.

The 24 hour channel will be available free-to-air at launch and later be added to the View Asia package. We wrote more about the company and the channel earlier here.

Viacom18 Media is a joint venture between US based Viacom and Mumbai’s Network 18 Group.

A landmark exhibition which opened last month in London’s East End is showcasing beautiful photography from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh – stretching over 150 years.

Titled ‘Where Three Dreams Cross’ – it features over 300 works by 70 artists covering historic and contemporary photography from the subcontinent.
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AIM Magazine has been granted access to some of the striking photographs featured in the ‘Where Three Dreams Cross‘ exhibition.
Here are some of the photographs on display.

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Author and writer Anjana Gosai was named Beauty Journalist of the Year at the annual Beauty Journalism awards last week.

The 32 year old writer from north London said: “To be recognised amongst my peers, including beauty editors whose work I have admired for years and to have my work commended by top people in the industry makes me feel very humbled.”

She won the award for an article on skin lightening written for fashion mag Asiana. She has also written for a range of national newspapers and magazine.

Anjana’s first book, The Ultimate Guide to Beauty, was published last year.

by Poorna Shetty
Freelance Writer

Call me nostalgic, but there’s something about the process of producing a magazine that I’ll always love.

When I was editor of Asiana, it was a combination of frantic scrabbling during deadline week while the printers yelled on the phone for pages, culminating in the moment that made it all worth it – the first delivery of magazines smelling of freshly-minted paper containing all our hard work.

Going freelance was a choice not a byword for voluntary redundancy, and since then I’ve managed to travel the world and write for The Guardian, The Sunday Times Travel and The Daily Telegraph. Working in your pyjamas with all of the money and none of the office politics – no regrets.
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Ms Amarat Sehgal is a graduate in Media Technology and has been a creative writer for over two years. Having experienced the high’s and low’s of many adventurous relationships, she has decided to share her experiences.
You can follow the series exclusively here on AIM over the next six weeks.

by Amarat Sehgal
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I looked at my phone for the fifth time, checking to see if there were any missed calls or messages.
Nothing! And there was zilch for the next 3 hours too.

I knew Danny was in the pub again, I could even name the pub too. He was watching the Chelsea match and as always, he drank far too much.
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The 12th annual Asian film festival – Tongues on Fire – will host its launch this week.

It will close with the premiere of acclaimed director Sangeeta Datta’s Life Goes On. But the festival opens on 5th with an awards ceremony and lasts until 14th March.
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He may have been unsuccessful in winning the Ealing and Southall seat from Virendra Sharma, but Tony Lit is not giving up on his political aspirations.

The former managing director of Sunrise Radio, now its Sales Director, has been short-listed and is now among six candidates fighting to be the Conservative Party’s official candidate neighbouring Hayes. The announcement was made late last week.

Others running against him include Gurmaj Dhillon, a former Treasury official who has advised the Tories on police reform; Lindsey Hall, Westminster councillor and Naman Purewal – Deputy Chairman of Feltham and Heston Conservatives.

A BBC Asian Network spokesperson today admitted to AIM Magazine that its future was in doubt as senior executives carried out a review of services across the corporation.

The uncertainty was sparked when chief operating officer Caroline Thomson said the BBC was finding it difficult to try and “cater for many disparate groups simultaneously”.

She told a communications committee inquiry in the House of Lords that, “one of the difficulties of the Asian service is its concept. It broadcasts in a number of different languages to an audience that varies from younger to older [listeners].”
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The London-based Commonwealth Journalists Association (CJA) issued a statement yesterday stating it “appalled” at the Sri Lankan government’s continued persecution of journalists “for committing the ’sin’ of criticizing the ruling party”.

The organisation was also “deeply concerned” at the disappearance of the Sri Lankan journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda.

There has been growing concern and coverage of events in Sri Lanka, where police raided the offices of opposition candidates last week, seizing equipment and arresting staff.
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by Jaspreet Pandohar
Freelance writer

In the current economic climate it may seem a tad risky to start a new business. When that venture happens to be within the unpredictable entertainment industry it’s probably even more of a perilous idea.

But that’s exactly what two daring young Londoners have done by creating a new UK-based film distribution company.

This month will see two new releases by them: The Pool and Made In Pakistan (more details at the end).

A US-India co-production directed by filmmaker Chris Smith, The Pool stars legendary Indian actor Nana Patekar and is a tale of a boy’s obsession with a glittering swimming pool and how it changes four lives in India.
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An enterprising local reporter has offered a date with herself to raise money for Haiti.

Royal Borough’s chief reporter Inderdeep Bains agreed to being the top prize for the charity drive, with the proviso that male readers donate a minimum of £20 each.
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Guardian News & Media are looking for new voices as part of their commitment to the diversity of editorial content and the writers that they use.

If you belong to a minority group through your ethnicity, gender, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, they invite you to apply for a place on a minority writers’ workshop with editors from the Guardian’s G2, Comment and Weekend sections.
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The Mail on Sunday’s parent company has had to pay out substantial libel damages to the Muslim Council of Britain’s Inayat Bunglawala over terrorism related allegations.

Associated Newspapers accepted that Mr Bunglawala did not support al-Qaida after making the claim last year.
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