Latest news with #Vaz
Time of India
6 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
‘Address local issues before initiating new developments at Colva beach'
Colva: The Small and Medium Hotels Association has urged govt to address the long-standing issues faced by local businesses and the fishing community before initiating any new development projects at Colva beach. 'Colva beach, once known for its pristine charm that attracted people from all corners of Salcete, now lies in a state of neglect. This has led to a sharp decline in foreign tourist arrivals, particularly among the hippie crowd that once put Goa on the global tourism map,' Small and Medium Hotels Association vice president Dixon Vaz. Vaz, who is also Cavelossim sarpanch, said govt's recent announcement to develop Colva beach under the Swadesh Darshan 2.0 scheme must be preceded by consultations with local stakeholders. He said the local fishing community's concerns — especially regarding spaces for unloading and drying their daily catch — must be resolved first, with permanent solutions. He said govt should discuss the proposed developmental plans with key stakeholders, including restaurant and shack owners, taxi drivers, water sports operators, the public and the local panchayat. Vaz said he will also request the chief minister and the tourism minister to look into their grievances before proceeding with development initiatives.
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Business Standard
27-05-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
JioHotstar races ahead, now second only to Netflix with 280 mn subscribers
JioHotstar, the streaming platform of India's biggest media conglomerate, JioStar, has reached 280 million subscribers since its launch in February, bringing it closer to Netflix, the US-based subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) OTT platform with over 300 million subscribers. 'Within a short period of three and a half months… we have got 280 million paid subscribers,' said Kevin Vaz, chief executive officer (CEO), entertainment, JioStar, in an earnings call in April. 'Globally, we are very close to Netflix, which gets this [subscriber base] from across the world.' In comparison, Amazon Prime Video has over 200 million Prime members (some countries have Prime Video services bundled with their Prime membership, while in some regions Prime Video exists as a standalone video service, which is not included under Prime membership). Earlier, in April, Media Partners Asia Insights, through its LinkedIn post, had projected that JioHotstar would reach 300 million subscribers before the IPL final in May, which is now rescheduled to June 3. JioHotstar did not respond to an email query on when it expects to surpass Netflix's subscriber base. A major differentiator between Netflix and rivals Prime Video and JioHotstar is the advertisement-supported model (AVOD) adopted by the latter two. Prime Video will introduce limited advertisements from 17 June. At launch, the combined platform of JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar had around 50 million subscribers, which surged to over 200 million in April, largely due to the Indian Premier League (IPL). Since the start of this year, JioHotstar has gained momentum not only due to its wide range of international content from top American studios—such as Warner Bros., Discovery, HBO, NBCUniversal's Peacock, Disney and Paramount—but also due to ongoing major cricket events like the International Cricket Council (ICC) Champions Trophy, the Women's Premier League, and the IPL. 'JioHotstar has a large broadcasting network and this network has a huge base in the majority of the sports event rights in India. This becomes a huge advantage for it [JioHotstar, particularly in cricket streaming], and compared to this, it is hard for others [other major OTT platforms like Netflix and Prime Video] to achieve that scale in India,' said a media buying executive. In the same earnings call, Vaz highlighted that JioHotstar's content library of 320,000 hours is six times larger than that of Netflix or Amazon Prime Video. He added that the India–New Zealand ICC Champions Trophy final match achieved a concurrency of 61 million, setting a world record for the number of people watching a sports event simultaneously. 'If I have to put it into perspective, as many of us might know of the Super Bowl in the US. Let me tell you, their peak concurrency could be one-fourth of it [compared to the India–New Zealand final match],' Vaz noted. He further said that JioHotstar's catalogue includes 250 original titles—the highest among its contemporaries. On a monthly basis, the Indian OTT platform has 503 million users, which is considered significant compared to other major platforms in the country.
Mint
27-05-2025
- Business
- Mint
The return of a ‘feni' legacy
When Hansel Vaz, the man behind Goa's Cazulo Premium Feni, relaunched Dona Maria recently, it marked a rare full circle moment wherein an alcohol brand was brought back after it had been shelved. The year 1983 was pivotal for the Vaz family. Six years prior, Wilson Vaz began Vaz Liquor Industries in the state, and realised the need to create a brand within the family instead of just white labelling alcohol for other brands. It led to the creation of Donna Maria feni, named after his grandmother Maria Vaz and his wife Melanie Maria Vaz. The same year, his son Hansel was born. Donna Maria ran successfully for more than 25 years, but Hansel decided to pull the plug on the brand in 2014 after margins had drastically reduced, and feni started to be looked down upon as a cheap country liquor. He decided to launch a premium feni brand called Cazulo. At the Goa Cashew Festival 2025 recently, Hansel relaunched Dona Maria and brought back the Vaz's first family brand into the market. From Donna to Dona Goa in the 1980s was a different place altogether. The local spirit feni was one of the items, along with Goan cashew that the diaspora spread across Mumbai, Delhi and London never forgot to pack on their return journeys at the end of summer holidays. It didn't matter that the spirit was packed in plastic bottles and there were less than a handful of brands selling feni. 'Back then, people had confidence in the product and their main criteria was that the spirit had to be easy to carry," Hansel says. The brand also created some unforgettable memories for their villagers in Cuncolim during that decade. Hansel remembers the entire village coming together to pack a large order of feni ordered for export to the Middle East by Hindustan Unilever. 'We needed 15 people just to process the order. We were making rice to turn into glue that would seal the bottles. The folks came in an Ambassador car and I was later treated to a meal at Mandovi, the most exclusive restaurant at the time," he recalls. When the brand wanted to make coconut feni, they decided to use green bottles and instantly created a boom with the bottles as it was something no one had ever seen before. But it is the label that comes with the most interesting backstory. The original label was made by JJ School of Arts alumni David Fernandes, but it had one glaring error in the name. The brand was spelled as Donna Maria instead of Dona Maria. Hansel says this was a misunderstanding. 'The extra N alphabet denotes a term of respect much the same way Don Julio tequila is named." Also read: India's bars get creative with zero-proof drinks The bottle art was hand-painted by Fernandes with the words 'cashew fenny' in big letters to distinguish it from the other popular white spirit of the time – vodka. The rebranded version finally corrects the error, and is named Dona Maria, but there's no 'cashew fenny' written on it. Hansel, with his aggressive push for feni over the past decade, has ensured that people don't confuse it with any other spirit. The new label also comes with a cork and wax seal bearing the family emblem designed by Wilson. When he first saw the new bottle, Wilson couldn't help but smile. 'I was desperate to get a reaction out of him," Hansel says simply of the moment. The Dil Chahta Hai effect Domestic tourists first began discovering the charms of Goa after the massive success of Dil Chahta Hai, the Aamir Khan starrer directed by Farhan Akhtar in 2001. The movie changed Goa – and feni – forever, according to Hansel. Donna Maria was one among five-odd brands such as Big Boss and Cajulana among others selling feni in the state until then. But the jump in domestic tourists saw over a thousand feni brands launching at the turn of the century, leading to an alarming dip in quality and rise in prices. Donna Maria was selling at INR 150 in 2013 and with a turnover of just INR 3 lakh in the entire year, it became clear that the brand wouldn't survive any longer. Feni had acquired a bad taste over the previous decade, and locals had gone back to their trusted sources for the spirit. 'I didn't know how to break the news to my parents so I just said someone had forgotten to register the label that year (in 2014). They met the news with absolute silence at the time. I wanted to relaunch since 2018 because my parents are now in their 70s, and this is their legacy," Hansel says. Hansel was already working on Cazulo, a more premium version of feni to raise standards and prices of the spirit. It took him a year to figure out the entire process and the spirit stayed in barrels until they were ready to launch in the market. When Cazulo Premium Feni hit stores in 2018, it was a one-year rested bottle selling for INR 600 that shocked locals who feared the spirit was going out of their hands. Dona Maria will sell for the same amount with the relaunch. Balancing brands Hansel says that there is space for a good feni brand at the lower end of the price point in the market today where Dona Maria can make a mark. While Cazulo now sells for INR 900 a bottle, most other new-age feni brands sell for even higher prices. 'It's a calculated move to launch at a lower price point because no one is playing at that price point," he adds. More than the price, it's the renewed nostalgia that has caught Hansel by surprise. When his team approached retail stores with the new bottle, many old-timers looked back with fondness at the brand. This is also the target audience that Hansel wants to go after. According to him, while Cazulo is a feni brand for everyone interested in the spirit, 'Dona Maria is for a Goan who wants to drink at home with friends and family." The first batch of Dona Maria's 6500 bottles is now available in Goa for sale, but not without its own glitch. Hansel's team had asked for a red seal but received a magenta-purple seal, something that will be unique only to the first batch of Dona Maria along with yet another story to pass on to the family about its most cherished brand. Also read: World cocktail day: Mixology goes high-tech with fancy bar equipment Priyanko Sarkar is a Mumbai-based writer covering the F&B industry.
Time of India
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
‘Cavelossim fisherfolk's houses must be protected'
Margao: The Cavelossim gram sabha held on Sunday largely discussed fishermen's issues, particularly the houses affected by the CRZ regulations. 'Mobor-Cavelossim is a village of fishermen and toddy-tappers. The houses of these people and their livelihoods need to be protected,' said Dixon Vaz, sarpanch of Cavelossim. Speaking to reporters after the gram sabha, Vaz said, 'The fishermen and toddy-tappers are the original inhabitants of the village. If others can build houses in the village, why can't these people living along the coast be allowed to repair or build houses? I will take up the issue with those concerned and ensure they get permission to repair or build houses, and even cast a slab. They can't be replaced.' The issue of water hyacinth in river Sal in the village also dominated the proceedings of the gram sabha. 'The water hyacinth invasion occurs primarily due to the release of raw sewage into the Sal at Sirvodem, Navelim, and Khareband,' Vaz said, adding that he would soon write to the district collector to convene a meeting of all the panchayats and municipal bodies along the Sal, as well as the MLAs concerned, to thrash out a solution to the disaster. The annual budget of the panchayat was also presented at the gram sabha.
