MUMBAI: Big Magic, Reliance Broadcast Network‘s music and entertainment channel for the Hindi heartland is launching a new devotional singing reality show for children.

The show, Big Bal Kalakaar, premieres in mid-December.

Powered by the company‘s FM station Big FM, auditions for the show will begin in 14 cities in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand. The show will be hosted by singer Prajakta Shukre and will be judged by Jatin Pandit and Rajan-Sajan Mishra. Pandit Gulshan Bharti is the mentor for the kids.

The city auditions will culminate in four cluster auditions from which 10 young voices will be chosen for the 26 episode TV series with each episode having a special theme. These 10 participants will be mentored by Gulshan Bharathi for two weeks before the TV show begins.

Through the show Big Magic wants to reach out to the local young talent and will spread across music schools in the region as well.

Big Bal Kalakaar calls for auditions through media platforms of both Big Magic and Big FM. This will also be supported by a holistic media campaign involving - print, local cable, SMS pushes etc, the channel said in a statement.

NEW DELHI: Uday Kumar Varma, who had earlier served as special secretary in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, was today appointed secretary in the same Ministry, succeeding Raghu Menon who retired at the end of September.

Varma is a senior Indian Administrative Service Officer from Madhya Pradesh belonging to the 1976 batch. He was presently serving as secretary in the Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises Ministry. 

Indiantelevision.com had earlier reported that Varma was tipped to succeed Menon as I&B secretary.

After Menon demitted office on superannuation, culture secretary Jawhar Sircar was given additional charge of the post.

Varma?s appointment has been cleared by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet.

NEW DELHI: Uday K Varma, who had earlier served as Special Secretary in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, is tipped to succeed Raghu Menon as Secretary even as orders came promoting Supriya Sahu as the Joint Secretary (Broadcasting) in the Ministry.

Varma is a senior Indian Administrative Service Officer from Madhya Pradesh belonging to the 1976 batch. He is presently serving as Secretary in the Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises Ministry.

After Raghu Menon demitted office on superannuation, Culture Secretary Jawahar Sircar was given additional charge of the post.

Sahu is also an Indian Administrative Service officer of the 1991 batch from Tamil Nadu. She has until now been Director (Broadcasting) in the same Ministry.

Sahu will be replacing Arvind Kumar, who has been appointed as the new chief vigilance officer (CVO) of National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC), though he has been asked to continue in I&B Ministry ?until further orders?.

Sahu had earlier been the District Collector of Nilgiris district, where she was the force behind the ?Say no to plastics? campaign to protect the eco-system of the hill station Ooty. Before that, she held the post of Additional Collector of Vellore district.