In a multi-city press conference conducted from Delhi, where 14 cities were uplinked via satellite, NDTV president Prannoy Roy unveiled the look and plans of NDTV India and NDTV 24x7.

Mumbai will now be an important newscentre of NDTV. "A prime time national news programme anchored and produced live out of Mumbai is one of our biggest new features," said Roy. To that effect, some of the senior correspondents have been shifted to Mumbai. Among them are Srinivasan Jain and Abhigyan Prakash, business editor Shivnath Thukral and entrainment anchor Sonali Verma.

Due share will also be given to other regions of the country. Courtesy breakaway programming, viewers in a particular city can watch a news programme specific to their city in a local language, while the rest of the viewers watches the national news. For example, Mumbai will have its own Marathi programme every evening. Viewer participation would be encouraged through SMS and video phone-ins. 'India Bole', hosted by Pankaj Pachauri, will be such a video phone-in programme.

There are some changes on the editorial side too. While Rajdeep Sardesai is the overall head of both NDTV 24x7 and NDTV India, Sonia Verma (now Sonia Singh) is the editorial head of English and Dibang that of the Hindi channel.

On the programming front, there are the some of the fresh line-ups for both NDTV 24x7 and NDTV India. Among the weekly programmes, the 9 O' Clock news will be anchored by Dr Roy, while a new programme X Factor, which takes a look at the day's news, will be hosted by Rajdeep Sardesai. Barkha Dutt will get to the bottom of the big story of the day in the Big Story. Also returning to the small screen is the crowd and critic favourite The World This Week.

In what may be the first of its kind in Asia, NDTV will have its own helicopter to facilitate news gathering. NDTV's Bell Jetranger 206 will be parked in Delhi and will be sent on assignments with reporters to different parts of the country. Through an exclusive arrangement with Deccan Aviation, NDTV will also have access to nine other helicopters and two planes in different cities. "For breaking news, emergencies, or in the case of huge traffic jams or rallies we want to be able to bring you the latest information as quickly as possible," said Dr Roy.

While, NDTV has a tie-up with Associated Press, it is contemplating similar tie-ups with international news agencies such as Al Jazeera, and some US-based news companies to share footage.