CNBC TV18 today announced three new feature shows targeted at corporate viewers for an insightful weekend viewing. The new shows encompass the channel's corporate programming initiative on news and analysis, market updates and feature shows. '55 Minutes' is a weekly round up on India Inc, while 'Classroom' is an in-depth look into the world of finance, investment and markets. 'The Power of Idea' is a "thought provoking" series on corporate transformation. All the three programmes will debut on August 30, 2003.

Talking about the initiative, B Saikumar, director, strategic alliance and business development, CNBC TV18, says, "With the new programmes we continue to provide our discerning viewers more than just financial news and analysis. Our objective is to offer our target audience a wholesome programming line-up."

Compiled in six segments '55 Minutes', the weekend summary, covers the entire spectrum of news relating to the Indian economy. Each contributor engages in a Q&A style of discussion with the lead anchor regarding the story of the week and additional four major stories. The show will be hosted by CNBC-TV18 managing editor Raghav Bahl. He will lead the discussion among the panelists and conduct the main newsmaker interviews. Along with him on the show will be CNBC-TV18's topmost editors.

Senthil Chengalvarayan will be the main general news anchor, Udayan Mukherjee will anchor the market news, and Govindraj Ethiraj will anchor the headline corporate news. Vivian Fernandes will help make sense of the week's political news, Anuradha Sengupta will go through the feature news of the week. Menaka Doshi will fill in with the corporate news of the week. The show will be aired on the channel on Saturdays at 9.00 pm and will be repeated on Sundays at 1.00 pm and 9.00 pm.

'Classroom', hosted by Ashu Dutt, will feature leaders of the financial community in the studio, discussing the basics of financial issues. Each episode of 'Classroom' takes off on one real life example picked up from a recent news story and then proceeds to explain it in depth. 'Classroom' will be aired on Saturdays at 12:30 pm, and the repeats would be aired on Sundays at 10.00 am.

'The Power of an Idea' would be launched on Saturday, at 7.00 pm. It is a six-part series that will give the viewer a crash course in innovative thinking and ideation. The guest host for the series is well-known ideation consultant, R. Sridhar, partner, IDEAS-RS. Various renowned industry leaders and experts from various fields will feature in this series.