Latest news with #Guinness
Time of India
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Govt aiming for 20 world records in yoga: Naidu
Vijayawada: The state govt is aiming for two Guinness World Records by organising the biggest yoga event ever, said chief minister Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday. Elaborating about the arrangements made for the grand celebration of International Yoga Day , he said that the govt is aiming for 20 world records in different categories. The first Guinness record will be attempted on Friday with the highest number of participants performing Surya Namaskaras in a single place. As many as 25,000 tribal students will perform Surya Namaskars for 108 minutes. Elaborate arrangements have been made from RK Beach to Bhogapuram, covering 26 kilometres for the event on June 21 to accommodate at least 3.19 lakh people. On Yoga Day, people will participate simultaneously in 8 lakh locations across the globe. "We targeted 2 crore registrations, but we crossed the target with 2.39 crore people registering for the event," said Naidu. The event is being conducted with the theme 'Yoga for One Earth, One Health.' "We plan to include yoga in the syllabus for students from the 9th grade. We are considering having yoga classes once or twice a week in schools. We are also contemplating establishing a Yoga Deemed University," Chief Minister Chandrababu revealed. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Giao dịch CFD với công nghệ và tốc độ tốt hơn IC Markets Đăng ký Undo Telangana can use Godavari water: CM Meanwhile, responding to Telangana's objection over the Banakacharla project, the Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday said that there is no point in engaging in an unnecessary dispute as abundant water is available in the Godavari River. Naidu said that Telangana can utilise as much water as it wants from the Godavari. "We never objected to any of Telangana's projects, and they need not oppose AP's projects when their interests are not affected in any manner," said Naidu. The chief minister explained that the Banakacharla project only uses excess water in the River Godavari, which is going to waste into the sea. A 100-year average inflow of the Godavari suggests that 3000 TMC of water is going into the sea every year. If Telangana wants to utilise the water that is available and wants to build projects to utilise the same, we will welcome it, said Naidu. Recalling the previous disputes over Krishna water sharing, Naidu said that it is not beneficial to fight over the limited water available in the Krishna River. Instead, both states can utilise the water available in the Godavari, he suggested. AP has a natural advantage in using excess flood water, being the lower riparian state. How can Telangana take water from the Godavari that is going into the sea, and in what way will their rights be affected if AP uses that water, he wondered. Naidu said that he is for amicable solutions that benefit both states, and he always wants both Telugu states to emerge as number one.
Irish Independent
13 hours ago
- Business
- Irish Independent
Jameson owner Pernod Ricard says it's ‘committed' to Ireland amid global review
France's Pernod Ricard owns Irish Distillers, with Jameson being a leading global seller for the group. It also owns brands such as Absolut and Martell. 'Pernod Ricard announced a reorganisation project aimed at creating a more agile and simplified organisation aligned with our strategic objectives and the current evolution of our business,' said a spokesperson. 'Given that we have just begun this process, we are not in a position to comment any further at this stage,' they said. The spokesperson added: 'Jameson is a strategic brand for Pernod Ricard, and we remain committed to Ireland, the Irish whiskey category and the growth of our whiskey brands on the global stage.' Jameson looks set to retain a leading role in the company's high-profile portfolio. Pernod Ricard told staff this week that it has launched an "internal project to create a more agile and simplified organisation". It had already announced job cuts in China, where steep anti-dumping duties on its Martell cognac label have hit sales hard, as well as a plan to cut €1bn in costs by its 2029 financial year. In a staff memo, chief executive Alexandre Ricard said the project, dubbed 'Tomorrow 2', was intended to "further advance the simplification of our organisation". Mr Ricard told staff in a video that the restructuring, which includes bundling administrative tasks rather than having brands operate individually, would lead to "departures", two sources said. There were no further details about the impact on jobs. In the presentation slides, the company said it would organise its brands into two main units, named Gold and Crystal. ADVERTISEMENT The Gold division would include champagne and brands such as Martell cognac and Jameson, while Crystal will include Havana Club, Absolut vodka and some French aperitif brands. The company plans to implement the changes, including voluntary departures, in the last three months of 2025, the slides showed. "These changes imply the launch of local consultation processes with our social partners and employees where necessary," Pernod Ricard said, without commenting on the number of jobs affected or the plan to group brands into two units. Last month, the master distiller at Pernod Ricard's Irish Distillers unit, Kevin O'Gorman, said a new €250m distillery at Midleton in Co Cork won't now open until 2027. It had been expected to open this year. Last month rival LVMH's wines and spirits division announced plans to shrink its workforce by nearly 13pc. Pernod, Guinness maker Diageo and Remy Cointreau have also had to adjust their growth expectations as the boom in sales enjoyed after the Covid pandemic has gone into reverse. All three companies have scrapped or reduced ambitious sales targets for the coming years. Remy and other rivals, such as Jack Daniel's maker Brown-Forman have also cut jobs. Diageo, the world's largest spirits maker, also plans to cut $500m in costs and make substantial asset disposals by 2028.
The Hindu
16 hours ago
- Sport
- The Hindu
Yogandhra 2025: Visakhapatnam set to host mega yoga event with 5 lakh participants
When dawn breaks on June 21, Visakhapatnam's Beach Road will transform into a sea of synchronised movement. The city is set to host Yogandhra, a celebration to mark International Day of Yoga, aiming to break records. Stretching across a 28-kilometre coastal corridor from RK Beach in Visakhapatnam to Bheemunipatnam, the event is expected to draw five lakh yoga practitioners young and old, experienced and new. They will be performing yoga in unison as part of an attempt to enter the Guinness World Records for the world's largest open-air yoga gathering, in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu will be taking part. Behind the scenes, the massive logistical choreography is being overseen by AYUSH, the Visakhapatnam District Department of Sports and the Andhra University Department of Yoga in addition to the Visakhapatnam district administration. Earlier in the week, Home Minister V Anitha highlighted the key arrangements being made in view of the gathering, which will include medical camps set up at every kilometre, supported by 200 ambulances and 2,000 CCTV cameras. 'Preparations are on to set up more than 300 compartments (sections) along Beach Road. In each compartment, around 1,000 participants will be performing yoga together,' says June Gallyot, District Sports Development Officer of Visakhapatnam and the nodal officer coordinating the event. 'Each unit will have a trained yoga instructor and two demonstrators to guide participants with correct posture and breathing techniques.' The effort, she says, is the culmination of weeks of training and mobilisation. More than 47 sports associations, in addition to the Visakhapatnam District Cricket Association, are lending their strength, with over 10,000 athletes and sportspersons expected to participate. These include swimmers, gymnasts, martial artists, football players and cyclists who have been roped in not just as participants but also as ambassadors to inspire youth engagement. A trial run was conducted on May 21 along parts of the Beach Road corridor as part of the Yoga Month launch, providing insights into managing footfall, spacing and synchronisation. A highlight of the event will be the Common Yoga Protocol (CYP), a 45-minute structured session designed by the Ministry of AYUSH to bring uniformity and flow to public yoga events. The yoga session in Visakhapatnam will begin with one minute of prayer. This will be followed by six minutes of loosening practices to prepare the body for asanas. The heart of the session is a 25-minute yogasana sequence that will include foundational postures such as tadasana, bhadrasana, vajrasana, bhujangasana, and end with savasana for relaxation. The final segment will dedicate 12 minutes to kriya, pranayama, dhyana and sankalpa. Powered by people The event also underscores the contribution of 900 yoga gurus, master trainers and practitioners from prestigious yoga institutions and spiritual organisations like Art of Living, ISHA Foundation, Patanjali Yogpeeth, and the Indian Navy. 'Our team trained 8,000 teachers is May, and over the past week, we've been conducting yoga awareness sessions and training programmes across educational institutions and community centres,' says Arunadevi, yoga guru and founder of Hyderabad-based Arunayoga, who will be guiding participants at a compartment at the RK Beach stretch during the Yoga Andhra event. 'The reach of yoga has expanded far beyond urban areas. Rural communities too are taking to it. Yoga is not merely a physical discipline; it's a journey towards mindfulness and inner balance,' she adds. As part of the pre-event build-up, she led a special yoga session for women on June 17 at Beach Road, focusing on stress relief and hormonal health through gentle asanas and breathing techniques. A major youth force behind the event is Andhra University, which has trained 1,400 students including 200 foreign students, who will serve as student trainers. These students underwent a week-long intensive programme at their respective colleges, mentored by scholars and PhD candidates from the AU Yoga Department. The event isn't limited to the beach. Alternative venues like Andhra University Engineering Grounds, Viswanadh Sports Club in Akkayapalem are also being activated to ensure inclusive participation from across the city and its neighbouring districts. On the evening of June 20, the Andhra University Engineering Grounds will witness a gathering of 25,000 participants from the Alluri Sitharama Raju District, who will come together to perform Suryanamaskar in a synchronised display with an aim to create a new record. Travel troubles The build-up to Yoga Andhra has also triggered a wave of outrage on social media, with many residents taking to platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram to express frustration over traffic snarls and sudden diversions. Several posts have highlighted long commutes and lack of timely updates. 'It took me nearly 60 minutes to reach Siripuram from MVP Colony in the evening. This can't be the price of a yoga event,' posted one user, echoing the sentiment of several commuters caught in gridlocks during trial runs. Many have raised concerns about traffic diversions and movement restrictions, particularly during peak morning hours and late evenings when rehearsals and preparations are underway.
Hans India
20 hours ago
- Business
- Hans India
BWSSB Sets Guinness World Record for Water Awareness Campaign in Bengaluru
The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) has forayed into the Guinness Book of World Records for running a large water conservation campaign. This happened between March 21 and 28, 2025. During this time, 5,33,642 people took a water-saving pledge. This was the highest number ever, making it a world record. Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar received the Guinness certificate for BWSSB. The Guinness World Records official, Swapnil Dangarikar, gave the award. The event was held at a hotel in Bengaluru. Shivakumar thanked BWSSB for spreading awareness. He said water saving is very important in cities. He shared that Bengaluru uses treated water for everything, even for washing cars, adding that in Delhi there is a separate pipelines for drinking and non-drinking water. He also said that 35% of people do not pay water bills. Still, BWSSB works hard to supply water. The government is planning to improve the water system. The goal is to supply water to 2 crore people in the city. Shivakumar said they will revise water prices to reduce losses. BWSSB now loses around Rs 400–500 crore every year. The price changes will be like those used in the transport system.
USA Today
20 hours ago
- Entertainment
- USA Today
'Jaws' took a big bite out of the box office and changed Hollywood
'Jaws' took a big bite out of the box office and changed Hollywood Fifty years ago, Steven Spielberg's movie 'Jaws' made box office history, becoming a pop culture phenomenon and spawning five decades of blockbusters seeking to match the film's thrills and success. Show Caption Hide Caption Top 3 scary moments in 'Jaws' 'Jaws' turns 50 this summer and USA TODAY film critic Brian Truitt celebrates with his favorite bloody moments. After "Jaws" hit the big screen 50 years ago – and smashed the then-current box office record – moviemakers and studios knew from then on they were going to need bigger budgets. The Steven Spielberg-directed film cost $12 million to make, more than three times its original budget and about four times the cost of an average film at the time. Of course, much of that involved the building of three mechanical great white sharks. "Jaws" opened June 20, 1975 on 400-plus screens across the U.S. and Universal spent $700,000 on an unprecedented TV advertising campaign, according to the 2010 book "George Lucas' Blockbusting," to drive movie lovers to theaters and create lines as a show of bloodthirsty demand. Overall, Universal spent "a whopping $1.8 million on promo," notes Empire magazine, which in its special June issue deemed the movie "unequivocally the most influential, important and game-changing summer blockbuster … ushering in new levels of pre-release publicity." Hollywood was never the same after "Jaws" and its effects "are still resonating today," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore. "The sensation 'Jaws' created made the movie theater experience the epicenter of culture and spawned what would become known as the summer popcorn movie blockbuster," Dergarabedian told USA TODAY. Shark screen attack: From 'Jaws' to 'The Meg,' we rank the 10 best shark movies of all time 'Jaws' landed a Guinness world record The Guinness Book of World Records agrees. "Not only did people queue up around the block to see the movie, during its run in theatres it became the first film to reach more than $100 million in U.S. box office receipts," according to the Guinness description of its first summer blockbuster film award. In just over two months, "Jaws" surpassed previous box office leaders "The Godfather" and "The Exorcist." Despite being blockbusters in their own way, "those obviously were not aimed at younger moviegoers and not released in the summer," Dergarabedian said. While "Jaws" is a movie classic, Spielberg recently said he deemed "The Godfather," the film "Jaws" overtook as the box office godfather at the time, stands as the "greatest American film ever made." By the time "Jaws" finished its domestic run in theaters it had made more than a quarter of a billion dollars ($260 million), which is over a billion dollars today," said Ross Williams, founder and editor of The Daily Jaws website in a new documentary "Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story." The documentary premieres July 10 on National Geographic and streams the next day on Disney+ and Hulu. George Lucas had feeling 'Jaws' would be a 'big hit' Also in the "Jaws @ 50" documentary, filmmaker George Lucas recalled how Spielberg invited him and some others to see the in-development shark. 'He (Steven) wanted to show us the construction of the shark, which was impressive. So I thought, 'Great this is going to be a good movie.' It was obvious it was going to be a big hit.' Spielberg, who discusses the struggles making the film in the documentary, was skeptical. "George looked at the shark and said, 'Wow this is going to be the most successful movie ever made.' and I, of course, looked at George like, 'Well you know from your lips to you know' ... but I didn't believe that." Lucas would go on to write and direct "Star Wars," which was released in May 1977 and would break the box office record set by "Jaws." Then, Spielberg would leapfrog him with "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" in 1982. 'Jaws' made it safe for summer blockbusters Before "Jaws," summer had been theatrical territory owned primarily by B movies and exploitation films such as 1974's "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." After "Jaws," the major Hollywood studios, which had avoided summer, now identified it as the prime releasing season, and 'Jaws' inspired hundreds of summer thrillers and F/X pictures," wrote the late Roger Ebert in his book "The Great Movies II." Spielberg himself would go on to spawn many more summer blockbusters including "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Jurassic Park," "A.I. Artificial Intelligence," "War of the Worlds" and "Minority Report" – all hitting theaters in the month of June. Two Indy adventures – "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" and "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" – released in May, the years 1989 and 2008, respectively, and "Saving Private Ryan" in July 1998. Outliers: "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" landed in theaters in December 1977; other December releases were "The Color Purple" (1985) and "Schindler's List" (1993). Spielberg had "hit after hit after hit for so long, and most of the time they were summer blockbusters," Shawn Robbins, founder and owner of Box Office Theory, told USA TODAY. His hit list included thrillers, fantasy and science fiction. "Genres, in a lot of ways, evolved because of what 'Jaws' did for summer blockbusters," he said. "Jaws" also raised the stakes, by moving "the bar in terms of audiences and what kind of thrill they might get," said J.J. Abrams, in the "Jaws @ 50" documentary. For instance, Lucas in "Star Wars," sought to match the thrill audiences got when Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) kills the shark in "Jaws," said Abrams. "When you think about it, it is a bit like the Death Star moment.' Studios' desire to have a release crowned as a summer blockbuster continues today. This summer's success, so far, of "Lilo & Stitch" and "Mission Impossible – The Final Reckoning" suggests the goal of a summer hit remains. "'Lilo & Stitch' has been a huge start to the summer season and one of Disney's most successful remakes that they've done," Robbins said. 'Jaws': A 'perfect movie at the right time' The financial success of "Jaws" migrated beyond the movie theater. Spielberg, along with Lucas, transformed movies into intellectual properties, which could be parlayed into merchandise, theme parks, video games, books, and TV shows, Robbins said. "They became a significant part of the pop culture fabric." ''Jaws' was the perfect movie at the right time to become an absolute sensation and in turn changed the whole model on which Hollywood based its revenue generating capabilities," Dergarabedian said. "Nothing was ever the same after 'Jaws.'" Mike Snider is a reporter on USA TODAY's Trending team. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, X and email him at mikegsnider & @ & @mikesnider & msnider@ What's everyone talking about? Sign up for our trending newsletter to get the latest news of the day
