Kids world  There’s a lot of exciting news for children. Spacetoon India, a kid’s entertainment company has ventured out with plans galore. Spacetoon strives to encourage learning appreciation and expression consistent with the interests and understanding of young people at all levels of learning. The company’s vision is to create mindspace for Spacetoon, its values and brand among the Indian kids and evolve into a global entertainment company. Kids Media India (KMI) represents the licensing business of spacetoon India. They have already struck deals in India for varied consumer products across categories like apparel, bath and bed, publishing, school bags, eye wear, and a few promotional deals. Some of the licensing deals signed include Lilliput, Funskool, et al. Some of the popular licenced and merchandized characters are Marvel Heroes, WWE, Doraemon, Shinchan, Incredible hulk, Hello Kitty, Spidey & Friends, Digimon and Dragon Ballz. In association with Animation International of Japan, Spacetoon has set up Kids Animation India (KAI) for its foray into publishing and merchandising business. The books and other products already in the open include Shinchan, Doraemon, The Incredible Hulk, Spider Man, Iron, Man and others. And above all, the Spacetoon Kids TV is the first free-to-air kids edutainment concept namely Action Planet, Zomorroda, (girls), Comedy, Bon Bon (Baby), Adventures, Alphabet, History, Science, Movies and Sports Planet – a perfect blend of education and entertainment for children from pre-school to teens.

Passion pays  He pursued a passion in the right earnest and getting the dividends now – a decent livelihood and the satisfaction of seeing people getting relief with his treatment. He is Delhi-based Assamese acupuncture expert Dr AK Agarwal who has provided relief to a number of people having back pain, headache, migraine, sports injuries and other problems including anxiety, insomnia, digestive problems, abdominal, menstrual cramps, weight and infertility. Born and brought up in Golaghat, Dr Agarwal got drawn towards acupuncture through his involvement in a Chinese martial art during his playing days, recalls the specialist during a chat at his first floor transit chamber at Sipani Guest House, Chatribari, Guwahati where he will be consulting patients till November 5 before going back to New Delhi where he has been practising since 1997. He says he will be coming back to Guwahati from time to time to serve his home state.

Birthday bash  Comic heroes Asterix and Obelix turned 50 on October 29. As part of the birthday celebrations Albert Uderzo has come up with a new album of Asterix short stories with 56 pages of brand-new, neverbefore-published cartoons! Asterix and Obelix appeared for the first time in print in the French comic strip magazine Pilote on October 29, 1959. They were an instant hit. Since then a total of 325 million copies of 33 Asterix books have been sold around the world, making co-creators Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo France’s largest selling authors abroad. Goscinny, who wrote the texts, died suddenly in 1977. Uderzo, who did the drawings, later continued the series alone. Thomas Abraham, MD, Hachette India, Indian publishers of the series, said, “Asterix has been part of every Indian reader’s growing up and grown-up years, and we’re delighted that the books still rule the charts here. An additional treat for Indian fans is the release of a collectible boxed set that will hold all the paperback titles.”

Simanta / Mridumoloy