CNBC AWAAZ "Investor Maha Kumbh' receives record text messages

CNBC AWAAZ "Investor Maha Kumbh', India's most authoritative initiative on financial education witnessed approximately 85,000 SMSes from viewers across the country, seeking expert advice on investments within 9 hours of marathon programming. The show also witnessed about 15000 people placing requests to open individual Demat accounts. With 3.3 million viewers* tuned in to CNBC AWAAZ on 5th Feb, Investor Maha Kumbh helped CNBC AWAAZ attain almost 60% market share# in the business news genre.

CNBC AWAAZ "Investor Maha Kumbh' was a LIVE programme dedicated at guiding and educating retail investors and non investors about financial planning and investments. Not only did it provide a comprehensive coverage of each asset class, constant expert advice, and concrete action points on investments, news, views and analysis; but also provided a platform to viewers from various cities across the country to have their investment & personal finance related queries answered by experts on the show, thereby clearing doubts and busting myths

The presence of eminent industry figures such as C.B. Bhave, Chairman, SEBI; N.R. Narayan Murthy, Founder, Infosys; Mr. K.V. Kamath, Chairman, ICICI Bank Ltd.; Mr. Deepak Parekh, Chairman, HDFC Ltd. and Mr. Adi Godrej, Chairman, Godrej Group on "Investor Maha Kumbh', Mr. Salman Khursheed, Union Minister, Water Resources and Minority Affairs took the show to new heights. The programme fulfilled its purpose of bringing together India's biggest and most revered wealth creators on a common platform in order to educate the Indian masses about the various investment avenues and thereby help them make the right investment decision and enable them to translate small investments into big earnings.

Speaking on the initiative, Mr. Sanjay Pugalia, Editor-in-chief, CNBC AWAAZ said, "I am thrilled with the success of CNBC AWAAZ "Investor Maha Kumbh'. From gaining knowledge about investor protection, to developing an understanding of the market fundamentals, increasing retail participation, gaining an insight of the advantages and nuances of different investment instruments, providing information on various asset class such as insurance, commodities, real estate etc., the "Investor Maha Kumbh' has managed to cover everything. Educating investors and traders is the core mandate for CNBC AWAAZ for the past six years. By launching "Investor Maha Kumbh', CNBC AWAAZ provided the investors and non investors a tool that helped them make informed decisions about their investments."

During the investor marathon, C.B Bhave advised investors to consider long term return on investments rather than mere trading. According to market experts such as Ramesh Damani, Vikram Kotak, Anand Rathi, K. R Choksey and Gul Tekchandani, investments in shares provide better returns as compared to other investment instruments unless no shortcuts are adopted. During the interactions, the experts also provided different investment options to the callers. According to market experts, the commodity market is expected to provide better returns and is likely to leave behind investments in gold and silver too.

The success of "Investor Maha Kumbh' only proves that investment education and guidance is still lacking in a number of cities. Although there are a number of investors ready to invest, they lack the right medium of information and knowledge. CNBC AWAAZ "Investor Maha Kumbh' has proved to be a Bible especially to those investors who lack appropriate resources, knowledge and time to start investing, build their investment portfolio and learn how to convert small investments into huge returns.

(*Source: TAM; Market: All India, TG: CS 4+, Saturday, 5th Feb, 0000-2400 hrs)

(# Source: TAM. Market: HSM, TG: CS AB Males 25+, Time Period: 0600-2400 hrs; 30 minute GRPs)