SonyLIV Brings ‘Avrodh: The Siege Within’ - The Untold Story Behind India’s Surgical Strike

On 18th September 2016, the Indian army woke up to the deadliest attack on our security forces in Uri, Kashmir. 10 days later, a Surgical Strike happened to redress the same. While the event is well known, the conspiracy behind it and the details of immense planning by the Indian army remains untold. Unfolding that story for the first time ever, SonyLIV brings the most authentic account of the landmark event in its next original Avrodh: The Siege Within. The 10-part series goes live on the platform on 31st July.

Based on ‘We Don’t Really Know Fear’, the first chapter of Rahul Singh and Shiv Aroor’s celebrated book ‘India’s Most Fearless’ and produced for Applause Entertainment by Samar Khan’s Irada Entertainment LLP, Avrodh revolves around a covert mission. After months of extensive research and consultation with army officials, the narrative was sketched out from different perspectives. To ensure Avrodh gives viewers an authentic view of the events in an engaging and entertaining manner, the makers invested over two years in production of the series.

Directed by Raj Acharya, Avrodh has Amit Sadh play Major Tango, the on-screen version of the 35- year old real-life hero who spearheaded the mission along with an ensemble of actors like Darshan Kumar, Pavail Gulati, Neeraj Kabi, Madhurima Tuli, Anant Mahadevan, Vikram Gokhale and Arif Zakaria.

Comments:

Ashish Golwalkar - Head-Content SET, Digital Business, Sony Pictures Networks India

“SonyLIV’s purpose of existence is to tell ‘the stories of India’, and we could not miss the biggest narrative of our time - the story behind the Stunning Surgical Strike executed by brave Indian Soldiers. We are delighted to partner with Applause who have invested in the best resources, time, and research into bringing this series alive on SonyLIV. Avrodh details the conspiracy behind URI attack and the immense planning, precision and strategy that went into the strike. We are confident that the audience will enjoy this pulsating series that will keep them at the edge of their seat”.

Sameer Nair, CEO, Applause Entertainment

“Stories pertaining to homeland security, the defense forces and our national spirit are important tales to tell and interest widespread audiences. We are proud to present the true story behind the incident that sent shockwaves across the country, and our nation’s determined strike-back. A dedicated and passionate team conceptualized the story from book to screen and that is what makes Avrodh a deeply rooted and inspiring tale. After successfully launching two of our premium shows on SonyLIV, we are excited to present our next offering with them.”

Amit Sadh, Actor, Avrodh

“It’s a delight for an artist to portray a character so iconic and deeply rooted in history. At the same time, it’s about filling in huge shoes so there is a lot of accountability in being Major Videep and in leading the most talked about mission by Indian armed forces. I am glad to have got this opportunity and I hope I have been able to do justice to the role. Avrodh has been a very special experience for all us and we can’t wait to gauge the audience reaction.”

Starting 31st July, 2020, SonyLIV is proud to present Avrodh: The Siege Within

Has Intel completed Wind River acquisition?

Intel has completed its purchase of Wind River, which builds software for smartphones and other devices.

The acquisition is costing Intel $11.50 a share in cash for a total price tag of around $884 million, Intel said Friday. Wind River is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel, reporting to the chipmaker's Software and Services Group.

By scooping up Wind River, Intel hopes to carve out a greater chunk of the mobile device market. Wind River designs operating systems and other software for cell phones, portable Internet devices, consumer electronics, and in-car "infotainment" systems. With such diverse customers as Sony, Verizon, Motorola, Boeing, and NASA, Wind River has its hooks in the automotive, aerospace, and telecommunications industries.

"The acquisition will deliver to Intel robust software capabilities in embedded systems and mobile devices, both important growth areas for the company," said Renee James, an Intel vice president and general manager of the company's Software and Services Group.

The purchase of Wind River also moves Intel further into software as an added source of revenue.

Though now owned by Intel, Wind River said it will continue to develop applications for its current customers. The company expects to pick up sales and new customers with access to Intel's technology, brand, and global sales force.

Intel first announced its decision to buy Wind River on June 4.

CNET.com

Amazon.com finds competitor in Google in e-books

Seeking to find common ground with authors, who have complained about copyright violations through search services, Google plans
later this year to begin distributing and selling e-books on behalf of its publishing partners.

"We've consistently maintained that we're committed to helping our partners find more ways to make their books accessible and available for purchase," Google spokesman Gabriel Stricker said confirming the move first reported by the New York Times.

"By end of this year, we hope to give publisher partners an additional way to sell their books by allowing users to purchase access to partner programme books online," he said in an e-mail to InformationWeek, a leading source for information technology news.

"We want to build and support a digital book ecosystem to allow our partner publishers to make their books available for purchase from any Web-enabled device."

Google is anxious to find common ground with authors, who have complained about copyright violations in the past through services like Google Book Search.

Formerly known as Google Print, Google Book Search was introduced in 2004 and targeted by publishers and their lawyers the following year for digitising books without the permission of copyright holders.

A proposed settlement of that lawsuit is currently being reviewed by the courts and the US Department of Justice.

Google's e-book sales service will be made available to participants in the Google Book Service Partner Programme, a marketing programme for promoting books through Google Book Search.

If Google succeeds in making peace with authors and publishers, it may find itself competing more directly against Amazon.com, the publication said.

Amazon gave up competing against Google Search in 2006 when it closed its A9 search engine, but Amazon Web Services, the company's on-demand computing infrastructure service, remains a strong contender against Google App Engine.

With its Kindle e-book reading devices, Amazon has been building the infrastructure and market for electronic texts on portable devices, a transition in reading technology that's been anticipated for a decade, but never fully realised.

Apple too will soon release its iPhone 3.0 operating system, which will bring e-book sales opportunities to the iPhone's many e-book reading apps, InformationWeek said.

Apple is rumoured to be working on tablet computing device, a form factor ideal for reading e-books. Other players, like Sony, see a future in e-books, too.

Agencies

Satyam Continues To Lose Major Customers

Satyam Computer Services is on a 'losing spree', having so far lost outsourcing contracts from large customers to rivals such as IBM Corp., TCS, Infosys Technologies and Wipro Ltd. Now, a US property and casualty insurer is seeking to replace its outsourcing contract with Satyam.

US based Selective Insurance Co., which has reportedly outsourced about a quarter of its IT staffing requirements to Satyam, is said to be looking for alternate arrangement in light of Satyam latest woes.

In papers filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last month, Selective is quoted to have said: "We believe we would be able to manage an efficient transition to a new vendor and not experience a significant negative impact to our operations in the event that we no longer retain Satyam in their current capacity due to the financial issues they are currently experiencing."

Satyam chairman Ramalinga Raju on January 7 admitted falsifying the company's cash position by as much as $1 billion while overstating quarterly earnings and revenue by up to 28%. Sources indicate that Satyam may also have faked employee numbers and other data.
Since then increasingly nervous Satyam customers are looking for alternatives in case the scandal-scarred outsourcer is unable to restore internal stability or find a buyer with pockets deep enough to see the Indian company through its current crisis.

Many customers have either completely exited, or are in the process of moving their outsourcing contracts from Satyam to rival tech firms such as IBM, TCS, Wipro, Infosys and Accenture.

Some of the customers, including Telstra, Emerson, Nissan, State Farm Insurance, Applied Materials, Kansas State Bank, and Sony, have either moved out their projects completely, or are in the process of migrating current Satyam work to other outsourcing vendors.

iGATE, which was keenly bidding for the 51% stake of Satyam, has now pulled out from the bidding process mainly due to the loss of Satyam customers. Phaneesh Murthy, CEO of iGATE Corp, said, "We know that there are customer exits happening at Satyam. While the value erosion and the extent of liabilities were a concern, it was the totality of concerns that influenced our decision."

However, some large Indian players like BK Modi's Spice Telecom, Tech Mahindra, and L&T are among the companies to move to the second stage of bidding for the fraud-ridden IT outsourcer.

CXOtoday

Sony freezes salaries, compensations, hikes of employees'

Sony Corp has decided to freeze its workers' salaries for the year starting in April to improve profitability, the financial daily Nikkei said in its Thursday edition.

The paper said workers' bonuses will also be lowered to four months' pay from six months, and annual compensation for managers will be dropped 10 to 20 per cent through wage cuts and 35 to 40 per cent bonus reductions.

"Executives will also be slugged with huge cuts to bonuses and salaries," Nikkei said. Due to the global economic downtown and the strength of the yen, Sony is expected to report a group operating loss of 260 billion yen ($2.65 billion) for the year ending March 31, the paper said.

Agencies

Tech giants NEC, Hitachi announce 27,000 job cuts

High-tech giants NEC and Hitachi said on Friday they were cutting up to 27,000 jobs as Japan Inc. buckles under the strain of the global economic crisis.

NEC Corp. said it was slashing 20,000 jobs worldwide by March 2010 - half of them regular workers - as it sinks deeper into the red. About 40 percent will be in Japan and the rest overseas, NEC president Kaoru Yano told a press conference.

Hitachi Ltd. said it would shed up to 7,000 jobs as it forecast a net loss of 700 billion yen ($7.8 billion) in the current financial year to March. It will try to move full-time workers around within the company to minimise job losses, company president Kazuo Furukawa said.

"We will take various measures but may not be able to avoid cutting some regular workers," he said.

NEC announced the job losses after saying it expects a net loss of 290 billion yen ($3.2 billion) in the year to March as recessions in major economies from Japan to Europe and the United States hammer demand.

"It is regrettable that we have to announce such a big downgrade," Yano said. "We must cut waste."

Computer maker Fujitsu Ltd. said its net losses ballooned to 36.1 billion yen ($403 million) in the nine months to December, and forecast it would end the year to March in the red.

"I have absolutely no confidence in the fiscal year 2009," Fujitsu chief financial officer Kazuhiko Kato told reporters. "I have no clue what the outlook will be."

Japan is in the midst of its first recession in seven years as the global slowdown saps demand overseas for cars, computers, cameras and other key exports.

A slew of gloomy economic data released on Friday suggested the recession is deepening, with factory output falling a record 9.6 percent in December.

Japanese companies have also been hit hard by a strong yen, which recently soared to a 13-year high against the
Layoffs dollar.

There was more bad news from the car industry as Honda Motor Co. reported that its net profit dived 89 percent to 20.24 billion yen in the fiscal third quarter as car sales slumped.

All Nippon Airways meanwhile said it expects an annual net loss of nine billion yen -- its first in six years -- as travel to North America and Europe declines due to the global economic crisis.

There was also fresh misery in the banking sector as Mizuho Financial Group posted a net loss of 50.55 billion yen in the nine months to December due to the global financial crisis.

Mizuho has been badly hit by financial market turmoil and losses on toxic mortgage-backed securities. A year earlier it had made a net profit of 393.03 billion yen.

The group downgraded its outlook but still hopes to end the current financial year to March in the black. It expects a net profit of 100 billion yen, down from an earlier projection of 250 billion yen.

"The dislocation of the global financial markets stemming from US subprime issues has worsened with the failure of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 and has caused an economic downturn on a global scale," it said in a statement.

"As a result, the economic situation in and outside of Japan has been deteriorating rapidly."

Agencies

Due to drop in profits, Ericsson to cut 5,000 jobs

Wireless equipment maker LM Ericsson on Wednesday said profits dropped 31 per cent in the fourth quarter, citing restructuring charges and weaker handset sales, and said it would slash 5,000 jobs.

Ericsson said net profit fell to 3.9 billion kronor ($465 million) from 5.6 billion a year earlier.

It reported ``a dramatic drop'' in the contribution from its handset unit, Sony Ericsson. The joint venture with Japan's Sony last week said it had swung to a fourth-quarter loss of euro187 million ($243 million).

For the full year 2008, it posted a profit of 11.3 billion kronor, nearly half the 21.8 billion kronor reported for 2007.

Boosted by a weakening krona, Ericsson's sales in the fourth quarter rose 23 per cent to 67 billion kronor, from 54.5 billion kronor a year earlier.

The share soared nearly 11 per cent to 62 kronor in Stockholm stock market opening.

The world's leading maker of mobile broadband infrastructure said it released the fourth-quarter results a week ahead of schedule because it believed they exceeded market expectations.

In a statement, Chief Executive Carl-Henric Svanberg described his company's performance in 2008 as ``solid,'' pointing out the sales and the operating margins, excluding Sony Ericsson. He warned however that the financial downturn makes it ``difficult to more precisely predict to what extent consumer telecom spending will be affected, and how operators will act.''

The company said it needs to widen its savings program as the global financial crisis continues to pressure the industry, tough competition and the technical development. That would mean cutting 5,000 jobs, or more than 6 per cent of its 79,000-strong work force, Ericsson said.

The Stockholm-based company said it expected restructuring charges of 6 billion-7 billion kronor, yielding annual savings of around 10 billion kronor by the second half of the year.

In a webcast news conference with analysts and journalists, Svanberg said ``we're doing this of course because of the uncertainty in the market.''

For 2009, he said it will be a priority for the company to stay close to its customers to understand their behavior and needs, adding his company is also preparing for tougher times to be able to defend its margins and extend its leadership.

Agencies

Will Japanese production plunge amid global slump?

Japanese production fell at the fastest rate on record in November as firms closed factories and cut jobs due to slumping demand brought on by the global economic crisis, according to data out Friday.

Industrial output in the world's second largest economy plunged a record 8.1 percent in November from the previous month, the ministry of economy, trade and industry said.

It was the biggest drop since the ministry began releasing output statistics in 1953 and was much worse than market forecasts of a 6.7% fall.

Production is likely to continue falling, with the ministry expecting an 8.0% drop in December and another 2.1% decline in January, as the auto industry feels the pinch.

"Overall, production is rapidly falling," the ministry said.

Unemployment meanwhile rose to 3.9% in November, worsening 0.2 percentage points from the previous month, the internal affairs ministry said.

The figure was slightly below average market forecasts of 4.0%.

The number of people out of work increased by 100,000 from a year earlier to a total of 2.56 million.

The data came as brand-name Japanese manufacturers, including Toyota Motor Corp., Sony Corp. and Canon Inc., lower production and eliminate jobs to adjust to the slump in overseas demand for their exports.

The job cuts have targeted mainly people on limited-term contracts or those who were dispatched from temp agencies.

The labour ministry said that a total of 85,012 temporary or dispatch workers have already lost their jobs or know they will be laid off by March.

The figure doubled in a month, reflecting the rapid deterioration of the employment environment for people without permanent contracts, a health ministry official said.

In other data, Japan said that core consumer prices rose 1.0 percent in November from a year earlier although they eased by 0.8 percent from the previous month.

Core consumer prices have been rising for more than a year, albeit at a slower pace than before as global energy prices come down.

Japan for a decade battled deflation, or falling prices, which sapped growth from the economy.

Source: Agencies