CNN is flying in a high-profile team of presenters and producers from Atlanta and Bangkok, including CNN star Riz Khan, for a round-the-clock coverage of the event. Apart from live coverage of the elections, including programes such as Insights and Q&A, the channel will strive to bring forth the global perspective to the event, said company officials.

Speaking to The Financial Express, CNN bureau chief Satinder Bindra said the stepped-up coverage is part of channel's regionalisation programme. The channel plans to spend $10 million over the next two years in its localisation programme for Asia and Europe, said Turner Broadcasting executive director (public relations) Asia-Pacific Grace Wong. The company has already put in around$30 million for regionalisation of its programme worldwide. "More programmes from Asia by Asians" is the basis of the channel's regionalisation drive, said Wong. CNN is going in for four distinct regional channels outside the US. The company focussed on Europe last year and this year the spotlight is on Asia, said Wong.

On impact of the regionalisation drive on the company's bottomline, Wong said ever since it began its regionalisation programme advertising, revenue has gone up by 35 per cent. Distribution in Asia has risen from 19 million households to 26 million, officials claimed. In India, the channel goes to around 4 million households, officials added.

Generally, the company works on a return on investment with a three to five year time frame in mind, said Wong. The CNN group is one of the largest and most profitable news and information companies in the world.

Wong said that the CNN is mulling over having a split feed or time shift for India. However, plans are yet to be firmed up, sheadded.

The channel is open to having partnerships with Indian companies on programming front, said officials. The channel has doubled the size of its Delhi bureau in recent months and also pepped up its marketing efforts in the country.

Bindra said CNN's stepped-up coverage of India-specific events began with the Kargil conflict when the channel gave out updates from India very 15-minutes. "Kargil created lot of interest about India in the international community. We would like to keep up the momentum with the world's largest democracy going to elections," he said.

There will be a two-and-half hour question and answer (Q&A) programme anchored by Riz Khan from August 30 to October 1 and then live Q&A one-hour daily from October 4 till 8.

The CNN news feeds will also be available on its website, CNN Interactive. The channel is launching an Asia-specific website in September this year.The CNN group comprises six cable networks, three private, out-of-home place-based networks, two radio networks, 10websites and CNN news-source.