Discovery & Discovery Plus to Showcase ‘Listen to the Sea’, A Moving Documentary about Odisha's Tryst with Cyclone Fani on June 20

Discovery’s new show ‘Listen To The Sea’, sheds light on one of the country’s greatest calamities, Cyclone Fani, taking a deep dive into critical 48 hours before the landfall of extremely severe cyclonic storm which threatened widespread damage to life and property in the state of Odisha. While the property, especially critical infrastructure like power, telecom, roads – both national highways, state highways and rural - were severely damaged, Indian’s meteorological department’s (IMD) pinpoint accuracy in predicting the time, path and severity of the cyclone, helped immensely in saving lives.  The government activated the disaster management program, leveraging the 48-hour notice by IMD, and evacuated more than 1 million people to safety.   ‘Listen to The Sea’ is a story of hope as Odisha triumphed over this sever cyclone through its gallant efforts.

“We cannot control natural disasters and catastrophes but after the devastation caused by super cyclone in 1999, our aim was to make sure that as much as possible, no human life should be lost henceforth in such disasters. In a state which has almost 500 kilometers of coastline, one should listen to the sea,” said, Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister of Odisha. “Cyclone Fani was a test of our preparedness. I would like to take this moment to highlight the efforts of all those who stepped in - over 45,000 volunteers who worked alongside the government officials to help in the evacuation process.  It is due to this combined effort that Odisha successfully conducted Asia’s largest evacuation before Cyclone Fani by getting more than a million people to safety.”

Megha Tata, Managing Director – South Asia, Discovery, said, “This is not a documentary about a cyclone that threatened to ravage a state. It is a story of human will and what it can do in the face of abject disaster. LISTEN TO THE SEA is a story of Odisha’s resilience.”

Tune in to LISTEN TO THE SEA, which launches on 20th June on Discovery & Discovery HD Channel at 9 pm. Viewers can download Discovery Plus app to stream the show on June 23.

Are Google SMS Search, your best friends?

Now you can get answers to all of this and more through a simple SMS at the price of your regular SMS* across India.

Cricket scores and Astro updates on SMS brought a smile to a lot of us, only until we saw the bill at the end of the month. And this was after we were also trying to remember multiple input methods. After speaking to many users about their 'sms' information woes ,we at Google ,have come up with a newer version of Google SMS Search.

The product has been reincarnated, with a new number and tons of new features. Now you can SMS your query to 9773300000 at the cost of a regular SMS and get instant answers. Launched nationally, this service is available across all operators on both GSM and CDMA mobile phones.

The list of features available on Google SMS search is given below. What we do want to add is that searching on SMS will be MUCH easier NOW. No longer do you need to remember complicated strings to put before your query, you can search as if you are searching on Google web search – we will do all the hard work to understand your query and give you the best results on SMS. Hope you will enjoy the change!

SMS Search features-
1.Cricket Scores:Simply SMS "cri" or "cricket" or "cricket India" to receive latest cricket scores.
2.Indian Railways:Send your PNR number to get latest status of your PNR (confirmed/RAC/current waitlist status). Or send "trains between mumbai to delhi" to know trains and get further details of train schedule.
3.Stock Quotes:SMS "Company name quote" to receive stock quotes from BSE. e.g. "reliance stock".
4.Horoscope:Simply send your sunsign (e.g. Virgo) to receive your day's horoscope
5.Local Business Search:Do local search on SMS (e.g. categories such as "restaurants indira nagar bangalore" or businesses such as "pizza hut koramangala"). This is available across 34 cities - Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkatta, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, Noida,Gurgaon, Faridabad, Vadodara, Surat, Kanpur, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Nagpur, Rajkot, Ernakulam, Cochin, Gaziabad, Bhuwneshwar, Aurangabad, Lucknow, Nashik, Indore, Panaji, Bhopal, Agra, Guntur, Visakhapatnam, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Coimbatore.
6.News:Send "news" or "business news" to receive latest news.
7.Movie Showtimes:Send "movies delhi" or "golmaal returns delhi" and get movie rating and movie showtimes.
8. Flight status: Flight status for Jet, Kingfisher, Indigo & Spicejet. Simply send "9w502", "It 302".
9.Definitions:Send "define " e.g. "define zenith", "define inflation".
10.Weather:e.g. "weather Delhi".
11.Calculator:"1 kilo in pound".
12.Currency Conversion: "5000 inr in usd".
13.Facts:e.g. "GDP of india" or "population of bangalore".

*Normal SMS rates apply and are determined by the service package provided by the mobile operator.

Source: Agencies

Google relaunches SMS service in India

Search giant Google Inc. has launched an SMS-based text message service that will offer search services across the country recently.

This service would be available across all operators on both GSM and CDMA mobile phones at cheaper rates, even to those who have mobile phones but do not have Internet connections.

Google has come up with a newer version of Google SMS Search at the price of regular SMS. The product has been reincarnated, with a new number and several features. Users can SMS query to 9-77-33-00000 and get automated answers on cricket scores, Indian Railways, stock quotes, local business search, movie showtimes, currency conversion, flight status, weather, horoscope, taxi service and ATM.

Vinay Goel, products head, Google India, said, "The latest offering is part of our mobile strategy in the sub-continent, where text messaging has become a part of daily life."