BestMediaInfo Bureau   December 12, 2011

Hindustan Times celebrates New Delhi’s 100^th birthday

The Capital’s leading newspaper will hold the New Delhi Conclave on December 15 as a culmination to the yearlong celebrations

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | December 12, 2011

Hindustan Times, which has been celebrating the 100^th birthday of New Delhi under the banner of ‘I Love Delhi’ throughout 2011, is getting ready for the high point of the celebrations on December 15. This is day when the foundation stone of New Delhi was laid a century ago.

Hindustan Times is organising the New Delhi 100 Conclave on December 15, inviting Delhi’s prominent citizens to come and share their vision of Delhi over the next 100 years. The Chief Minister of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit, will grace the occasion with her presence. She will be releasing a coffee-table book capturing New Delhi’s 100-year journey on this occasion.

Known to raise issues of public interest in Delhi, Hindustan Times kicked off the celebrations for New Delhi’s 100^th birthday on January 1, 2011, with an editorial series around various aspects of the evolution of the city. Chronicling how the political, cultural, social and architectural landscapes of the city have changed through the decades, this series was done at regular intervals throughout the year. One of the highlights of this series was the ‘100 Icons of Delhi’ – a listing of 100 buildings and institutions that define New Delhi as we know it today.

In addition to the editorial features, Hindustan Times undertook several initiatives to increase reader engagement throughout the year under the Delhi 100 platform, some of which were:

• Paint a wall: Children of more than 60 schools participated in an inter-school painting competition
• Design a T-shirt for Delhi contest: More than 23,000 designs were submitted, of which five were chosen, made into T-shirts and retailed through various outlets
• Delhi 100 Film Festival: Five films based on Delhi were screened at PVR Rivoli. Actors and directors of these films – Soha Ali Khan, Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra, Dibaker Banerjee, Myra, Rajshree Ojha, Maneesh Sharma and Rajkumar Gupta – interacted with HT readers and watched the films with the audience
• Delhi 100 InQuizitive: Delhi’s largest inter-school quiz competition with more than 6,000 children attending the event
• Delhi 100 Food Festival: 50 of Delhi’s best restaurants dedicated a special dish of theirs to Delhi and priced at Rs 100 for everyone to sample. Participants included Indian Accent, Karim’s, Khan Chacha, Chor Bizarre, TLR and many more.
• Daily 100 Reader Contest: 70-day contest which generated more than 7 lakh responses through daily SMSes and 100 winners got prizes every day.

Shantanu Bhanja, VP – Marketing, Hindustan Times, said, “I Love Delhi is a continuing initiative for Hindustan Times since it encapsulates our feelings for this beautiful city perfectly. Every year we have a theme for the initiative and this year, what else could it be except the Centenary of the Capital. We have done a series of events already and hope to bring it to a grand closure now.”

The newspaper also has a large outdoor campaign running around Delhi-NCR at present. In an innovation, most sites have been decorated with red and blue balloons, wishing Delhi on its 100^th birthday. The balloons make for a refreshing change by giving the city a festive and colourful look.

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