It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Asianet Communications Limited. (Discuss) Proposed since December 2009.

Asianet
Asianet logo
Launched	1993
Owned by	STAR TV Fox International Channels Jupiter Entertainment Ventures[1][2]
Slogan	Entertain and Delight.
Country	Indian sub-continent, China, South East Asia, Middle East, Europe, USA and the lower half of the former Soviet Union
Headquarters	Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India,
Sister channel(s)	Asianet Plus Asianet News STAR Plus Life OK STAR Vijay Asianet Suvarna STAR Utsav STAR World STAR Gold STAR Movies Fox Movies Premium STAR Cricket ESPN India STAR Sports Movies OK
Website	asianet.co.in www.asianetindia.com www.asianetglobal.com www.asianetnews.tv
Availability
Satellite
Tata Sky (India)
Airtel Digital Channel 570 (India)
Sun Direct (India)
Asianet Dataline (India)
Cable
StarHub TV (Singapore)	Channel 139
BIG TV (India)

Asianet is an Indian general entertainment channel broadcasting in the south Indian language of Malayalam which is widely spoken in the Indian state of Kerala, some regions of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and among Malayalee expatriates in the Middle East region. In terms of viewership, Asianet is often regarded as the most popular Malayalam-language television channel.^{[citation needed]} Based in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, the channel is part of Asianet Communications Limited (ACL), a joint venture between the News Corporation-owned STAR TV/Fox International Channels and Jupiter Entertainment Ventures,^[1][2] an Indian company led by Rajeev Chandrasekhar. Asianet has atmost 50 programmes per day. Asianet was the first privately owned television channel in Malayalam and the second to broadcast in the language.^[3]

Channel history[link]

Asianet commenced operations by the end of 1992 and started transmission by August 1993, at a time when the only Malayalam-language television channel available was the government-owned Doordarshan. The channel had hired a transponder on the Russian Ekran satellite, with an uplink from the USSR. Later, the company hired a transponder on the Rimsat satellite, and shifted the uplink to Subic Bay in the Philippines and then to Manila. Initially, the transmission time was only three hours per day which was gradually increased to 12 hours per day by the end of 1994 and later to round the clock broadcasting. In early 1995, the uplink was shifted to Singapore where it attained full operational status. With a change in the broadcasting policies of the Government of India, Asianet started an uplink from Chennai through VSNL. From July 15, 2002, Asianet had its own earth station at the Asianet Studio Complex in Puliyarakonam, Thiruvananthapuram. Over the course of more than two decades of operations, Asianet has developed its own in-house production facilities and now has full-fledged production studios in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode.^{[citation needed]}

The registered office of Asianet Communications Limited was shifted to Chennai on December 3, 1997. ACL's majority share was then acquired by Jupiter Entertainment Ventures Private Limited, owned by Rajeev Chandrashekar. In 2008, the News Corporation-owned STAR TV/Fox International Channels became a majority shareholder in ACL.^[1][4]

Coverage, viewership and impact[link]

Asianet reaches the homes of Malayalees in over 60 countries worldwide including the Indian sub-continent, China, South East Asia, Middle East, Europe, USA and the lower half of the former Soviet Union.^[1][2]

Besides its large viewership base among Malayalam-speaking people in Kerala and other regions of India, Asianet enjoys huge popularity among Malayalee expatriate populations outside India, especially in the Middle East. Further catering to the region's huge Malayalee population, Asianet operates a radio station "Asianet Radio 657 AM & 1269 AM" from the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The radio channel is also available in the neighbouring Arab countries of Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain.^{[citation needed]}

Brand identity and signature song[link]

The channel name Asianet was a product of its founder K. Sasikumar. The unique blue and pink logo was designed by acclaimed Indian graphic designer Suchatha Keshavan and is one of the most recognizable brand identities in the television broadcasting field in south India.

The signature song of Asianet, "Shyama Sundara Kera Kedara Bhoomi" is one of the most famous Malayalam songs.^{[citation needed]} Made in 1994, and originally airing in early years of the channel in the mid-90s, the song was written by renowned Malayalam poet P. Bhaskaran, composed by two-time Academy Award-winning Indian composer A. R. Rahman (who at the time, was just at the beginning of his career and was relatively unknown) and sung by Sujatha and Kalyani Menon. The video for the song is a collage of the various tokens of ethnic, cultural and traditional heritage belonging to Malayalees, set against a backdrop of the beautiful natural sights and landscapes of Kerala.^[5] Initially airing in the late 90s, the video quickly became an immediately recognizable symbol of Malayalee culture and a long-standing emblem for Asianet.

Programming and shows[link]

Asianet is a general entertainment channel with programmes in a wide variety of genres including Malayalam-language movies, soaps, reality shows, talk shows, news programmes, travel shows and music-based shows. While programming is mainly targeted at family audiences, there are several programmes aimed towards specific audiences such as shows for children, teenagers, young working professionals and elders.

The channel also broadcasts a successful musical talent reality contest - Idea Star Singer. Sponsored by telecom company Idea Cellular, the show is one of the most popular shows of its type in south India and is currently in its sixth season.^[6][7]

Asianet Film Awards[link]

The Asianet Film Awards were instituted by Asianet to honour both artistic and technical excellence in the Malayalam film industry. Held and broadcasted annually since 1998, the ceremony has gained in popularity over the years and is currently one of the most-watched award ceremonies in Kerala.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Official Updates
• Asianet Middle East Transmission on Insat 2E
• Asianet Online

Products and operations[link]

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S. Nambi Narayanan was a former head at the Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO). At the time, Nambi Narayanan was in-charge of the overall cryogenic project.^[1] In 1994, he was falsely charged with espionage.

Career[link]

It was Narayanan who introduced the liquid fuel rocket technology in India in the early 1970s while A. P. J. Abdul Kalam’s team worked on solid motors. Narayanan foresaw the need for liquid fuelled engines for ISRO’s future civilian space programmes. He was encouraged by the then ISRO chairman Satish Dhawan and his successor U.R. Rao. Narayanan developed liquid propellant motors, first building the successful 600-kg thrust engine in the mid-1970s and thereafter moving on to bigger engines.

After working for nearly two decades, with French assistance, his team developed the Vikas engine used today by all ISRO rockets including the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle(PSLV) that took Chandrayaan-1 to the moon on Oct 22, 2008.

The Vikas engine is used in the second stage of PSLV and as the second and the four strap-on stages of Geo-Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV).^[2]

He has since retired in 2001.

Charges against Narayanan[link]

In 1994, Narayanan was charged with leaking vital defense secrets to two alleged Maldivian intelligence officers, Mariam Rasheeda and Fauzia Hassan. Defense officials said the secrets pertained to highly confidential ."flight test data" from experiments with rocket and satellite launches

Nambi Narayanan, was among two scientists (the other being D Sasikumaran) that were accused of selling ISRO secrets for millions. He was charged with the leaking of vital defence secrets to two Maldivian intelligence officers, Mariam Rasheeda and Fauzia Hassan. Defence officials said the secrets were related to confidential flight test data from rocket launches. However, his house seemed nothing of the ordinary and did not show signs of the opulence he was accused of stolen.^[3]

Narayanan spent 50 days in jail. He says that the Intelligence Bureau officials who interrogated him wanted him to make false accusations against the top brass of ISRO. He alleges that two IB officials had asked him to implicate A E Muthunanakom, his boss and then Director of the Liquid Propulsion System Centre (LPSC). When he refused to comply, he was tortured until he collapsed and was hospitalised.^[4] He says his main complaint against ISRO is that it did not support him. Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan, who was ISRO chairman at the time stated that ISRO could not interfere in a legal matter.

In May 1996, The charges were dismissed as phony by the Central Bureau of Investigation. They were also dismissed by the Supreme court of India in April 1998. In September 1999, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) passed strictures against the government of Kerala for having damaged Narayanan’s distinguished career in space research along with the physical and mental torture to which he and his family were subjected.

After the dismissal of charges against them, the two scientists, Sasikumar and Nambi Narayanan have since been transferred out of Thiruvananthapuram and been given desk jobs.^[5]

Narayanan is now fighting court cases to get Rs.1 million from the Kerala state government that the NHRC ordered to be paid as interim relief and Rs.10 million in damages he had claimed from the state and central government.

References[link]