The highest number of TV viewers during the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics 2020 was recorded when Nobel Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus delivered his “Three Zeros” speech, following his acceptance of the Olympic Laurel.  Yunus Centre in Dhaka shared the information on Monday quoting a Toshiba report published on Yahoo News Japan. According to the report, Japanese TV viewers were listening to his speech on 47 per cent of all TV sets in Japan. Also read: ‘Honoured and overwhelmed’: Dr Yunus after receiving Olympic Laurel Toshiba's viewer monitoring was based on the sample size of 340,000 TV sets in Japan.  This programme calculates the audience rating every second.  According to it, the audience rating rose to 10 per cent of TV sets in the first 10 minutes of the opening ceremony broadcast.  The number of viewers continued to rise until it reached the peak during Prof. Yunus's speech.  At the time Japanese audience were watching the ceremony on 47 per cent of all TV sets in Japan. The Yahoo News Japan report also says audience rating of the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics was three times that of the opening ceremony of the Rio Olympics.  Yuji Suzuki, a well-known Japanese journalist who specialises in analytics, reported on the size of audience during the opening ceremony in an article published on Yahoo News Japan on July 24.  Prof. Yunus, in his Olympic Laurel acceptance speech, urged all athletes to build a world of Three Zeros.  Also read: Prof Yunus renews call for ensuring vaccine equality breaking profit wall He defined the Three Zeros as: Zero net carbon emissions, zero wealth concentration to end poverty once and for all, and zero unemployment by unleashing the power of entrepreneurs in everyone. If the whole world had the same percentage of tuning in to their television sets as in Japan (47%), that would mean 3.2 billion people all over the world were listening to his speech at the time. When the march past of country delegations of athletes began after his speech the audience rating, however, began to decline sharply, according to Yunus Centre. Athletes from more than 200 countries participated in the parade.

Noble Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus has said he is "honoured and overwhelmed" to receive the Olympic Laurel. "I'm honoured and overwhelmed to receive this Olympic Laurel. And so sad I can’t be there with you," he said in his acceptance speech. Prof Yunus received the Olympic Laurel as only the second person in history when the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics took place on Friday. The distinction was created by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to honour outstanding individuals for their achievements in education, culture, development and peace through sport. The IOC is taking the social dimension of sports very seriously, Prof Yunus shared on his verified Facebook page on Friday. "You, athletes of the world, can provide the leadership in transforming this world," he said. Prof Yunus called for creating a world of three zeros - zero net carbon emission, zero wealth concentration to end poverty and once for all, zero unemployment by unleashing the power of entrepreneurship in everyone. Read: Prof Yunus renews call for ensuring vaccine equality breaking profit wall He wished the IOC success with its mission to help transform this world to a more peaceful world through sport. "I wish all of you best of luck for your competitions," he said, thanking all for this award. "That’s so special to me. Thank you." “Bangladesh will be so proud of this award because Bangladesh is a country that doesn’t get close to an Olympic medal. But they’ve a cause to celebrate now. The whole world will watch a Bangladeshi receiving an Olympic award which will make every single person of Bangladesh proud of it. I believe it’ll be something that Bangladesh will remember for long,” said Prof Yunus during a virtual press meet recently. Prof Yunus is also the recipient of numerous international awards for his ideas and endeavours and is a member of the board of the United Nations Foundation. In 2006, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for founding Grameen Bank, which pioneered the concepts of microcredit and microfinance for people living in poverty. The first-ever Olympic Laurel was awarded to the Kenyan Olympian and social changemaker Kip Keino on 5 August 2016, during the Opening Ceremony of the Games of the XXXI Olympiad in Rio de Janeiro. Initiated for Rio 2016, the Olympic Laurel is to be awarded at the opening ceremony of each summer edition of the Olympic Games.