biz@net.come.in

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The ISP policy is still mired in a web of confusion.

Communication facilities continue to remain as abysmal as they were when the entire

telecom revolution thing kicked off. Ecommere is still in the realm of impossible. But

undeterred by the problems of the present, a new generation is laying the seeds of the

next great entrepreneurial revolution in India. And they are all betting on that web of

opportunity. Welcome to India of the nineties. Things are not as much different as they

were in the eighties. But if anything is different, it is the hope in this new generation

that tomorrow is definitely going to belong to them...and of course, that modern-day web

of power-the Internet.

There''s a strange type of elec-tricity in

the air. It''s nothing physical. Nor is it anything to do with the climate. With winter

just gone, Delhi has got into the sulking mood that precedes its inevitable hurtle to

another long hot summer. Laziness is the only word to describe the day and the mood of the

people these days. Yet there is this electricity in the air. It does not generate from the

surroundings, which are decidedly lower-middle class residential. Is it something to do

with the present? Or is it a sign of things to come? For, the building in the lower-middle

residential colony of NOIDA houses the offices of IB Saxena Design Labs. Usually, they

have as much to do with DATAQUEST as does Juhi Chawla. And normally, it would be rather

unlikely to find a DQ reporter here. But these are not normal times. IB Saxena, the

proprietor of the Labs, is the creator of Bababazaar-a supermarket chain that occupies

less space than you would imagine for the kind of products he has on sale, or for that

matter the market he services. For Saxena has beaten the huge amounts it takes these days

to put up a shop in the Capital by taking his supermarket on the Net. The result is

Delhi''s first web-bazaar that can be reached by simply typing out www.bababazaar. com on

any Internet machine. In the four months since he has set up the virtual bazaar, Saxena

has already netted around 400 regular customers and is confident of breaking even by June.

Variations of this story can be glimpsed in

every single area where VSNL has taken its Internet connection. In Delhi, the small

entrepreneur with the big idea based around the Web is as common as the Maruti on its

roads. In Mumbai, they talk of using the Internet to create a global business. In

Calcutta, it''s about how design and not technology is the main driver. And in Chennai too,

pockets of hope are springing up. Ask the pundits and they will tell you that it is from

these pockets of hope that the next-generation entrepreneur will spring up. Waxing

eloquent on the size, the scale of the opportunity, Anil Batra, Country Manager, Cisco,

says, "you are only limited by your imagination. This is a huge opportunity and it is

up to us to grab it and ride it to success." Batra himself might not be directly

participating in this race to create the next great businessman, but he knows all about

the potential and the possibilities. That''s why he is excited. And that''s why he comes

alive like what only a man with conviction can when talking about what can be done.

"Who would have thought," he asks "that the largest book store in the world

will exist only in the virtual form. Tell me of any one book store in the world that can

store the same range of books that this one can." He is talking about amazon.com, the

most successful book store on the Internet and by all accounts the largest repository of

books ever. But what Batra is also talking about is the scope of the opportunity offered

by the Web. "Imagination," he says "is the key. All you need is the right

idea to make your place in the tomorrow''s sun."

Taking on the Batra bet are a number of

20-somethings who make the new breed of businessmen. Men like Saxena in Delhi and Manish

Sharma, the 26-year-old CEO of DBS Internet, in Mumbai. Young men with a dream, and now an

opportunity to make that dream come true. What sets them apart from the previous breed of

businessmen is the scope of their ambition. For Sharma, the goal is not to become India''s

largest this that or the other. His idea is to grab for his company a slice of the global

market. This he is confident of doing working out of Mumbai. After all, the very nature of

the Web provides him with the opportunity of taking his ambitions global and Sharma for

one is not to lose out on it.

Opportunities Galore



The Internet is beginning to evolve as the single biggest business opportunity to present
itself to the country. There has been nothing like it before. The very nature of this

nebulous society has resulted in a plethora of business opportunities that ranges from the

sometimes mundane to the sometimes mindboggling. As Sharma puts it, "The scope of

doing business today is tremendous, and the beauty of this medium is you do not need to

invest a huge amount of capital. You can make do with the bare minimum, provided you have

an idea that is sustainable." Sustainability to a large part has been hampered by the

very slow growth of the medium in India. High access charges, coupled with poor service

and line quality has meant that the Internet has been viewed strictly on an experimental

basis by both corporates and as well as individual users. But with some kind of ISP policy

expected to be announced by Sanchar Bhawan in the next couple of months, the excitement of

what can be done is already palpable.

Riding The Bucking

Bronco

They are young. The MD is just 26 and his

partner 29. Mumbai-based Manish Sharma and Viraj Savant carry the conviction of pioneers

with a mission to make the possible happen to them. They talk tough. They are looking at

growing 600 percent this year. And of maintaining this growth rate for the next couple of

years. Their employee strength has gone from six to 85 in just two years.

They are passionate about what they do. And

this happens to be website creation and hosting for themselves as well as for other

companies. They host the Indian version of popular cricket site www.cricket.org. They have

also helped Yash Chopra develop his web site. According to Savant, "Chopra used this

site to effectively market the rights of Dil To Pagal Hai in the overseas market."

They epitomize the Internet evangelist. Their company DBS Internet hosts India''s fastest

commercial web server, thanks to a 128 Kbps link to VSNL, which allows the direct (non

dial-up) access to the WWW from India. Their Online Trading site, StockIndia, offers

trading of shares listed on the NSE.

This is all the more true in the case of

companies who are in the business of providing services around the Internet. Be it

content-site creators, like India World, Rediff-on-the-Net, or India Online, or developing

special focus sites like the NIIT Netvarsity to provide consultation and training-related

activities around the Internet-a lot of people are gearing up to take fullest advantage of

this opportunity.

Creating Content Or The New Age

Style Kids



"There are already more news sites on the Internet today than there are newspapers in
India," says info freak Debasish Sen. Sen gets most of his news off the Net these

days. Not only is it free, but it also allows him to align="right" hspace="0" width="242" height="327">customize news the way he likes

it best. This way, his paper has nothing to do with films and sports. Sections he normally

avoids in a normal newspaper. Sen had an Internet connection as early as a couple of years

ago, but he still relied on his newspaper. The reason, the Internet then had very little

of Indian interest. Then came along India World, followed in quick succession by a whole

host of other sites that today carry a plethora of information ranging from Sen''s favorite

news sites, to matrimonial and job sites, to even ones that offer a range of recipes. To

help you find what you want, Yahoo! need not be the search engine of your choice. There''s

the suspiciously similar looking and sounding Jadoo that declares itself to be India''s

first official search engine and then there''s Khoj.

Such is the excitement for creating content

sites that there is a new one almost everyday, and going by the response that these sites

receive they are becoming increasingly popular not only with the Indians abroad but by the

expat population as well. Sharma, for instance, says that his sites still receive more

enquiries from abroad. This early explosion, however, is expected to peter out with only

the best going onto become meaningful business opportunities. While it is early to pick

the winners, a look at many of these sites can give a fair good indication. And in most

cases, content need not be the overriding factor in defining success.

A Paper In Your Mail

Come April 8, and the concept

of the newspaper will undergo a slight change. For coming to you everyday at 3 pm will be

the country''s first email newspaper. A brainchild of journalist Lokesh Srivastava, the

e-paper goes under the banner of Newstec, and is the first electronic newspaper, or

e-paper, in India. What sets Newstec apart from the run-of-the-mill papers is its being a

full-fledged newspaper with photos and laid out in the style of a traditional newspaper.

It will cover major international and national happenings with exclusive reports on

finance, the stock market, film, TV, sports, and health. The best part is that the

subscription charges are only Rs 75 for the entire year. This means one copy costs you

just 25 paise. Says Srivastava, "With the hard copy, you not only waste a lot of

paper, but it also becomes very expensive." So, if you would like your newspaper

emailed to you, contact mahesh@del2.vsnl.net.in.

In the early development days of Indian

content sites, less than 5 percent of the total sites receive any ad revenue. This should

be a cause of worry for most content developers as their primary revenue stream is

advertising. Ruminating over the lack of ads in the content sites, Pradipt Kapoor, CEO of

Delhi-based Webworth, says, "The user base today is just too small to interest the

corporates. After all, we have something like a little over 2.5 lakh users in the country

today, that is just too small a segment for corporates to set up a separate advertising

focus on. But these are early days yet and surely as the user base continues to expand,

companies will come into advertising."

Content companies are also waiting for the

ISP policy. That will be their ticket to the big time in a big way. For, not only will the

policy increase the number of users manifold, the demand for local content will also shoot

up exponentially. Says Meena Ganesh, Director, Microsoft, "The ISPs are going to

create a tremendous demand for local content. For, competition is going to force these

ISPs to look for ways to value-add to their services. One of the ways they can do it, is

give their members access to good content sites." The ISPs will also create a

scenario where the sites will finally drop their .com address and get (because most of

them are situated in the US) and come back home. Says Ganesh, "Most of the ISPs will

have plenty of extra space on their servers and on their communication pipes. One of the

ways they can take advantage of this resource is by giving it out to content providers at

very low rates." This means content providers will have access to cheaper bandwidth

and server space. And though the opportunity is there, it is very much dependent on what

happens with the ISP policy and when it will finally be allowed to go ahead.

Web Site Development Or Netting

Corporate World

Content providers though aren''t sitting around waiting for it to happen. Says Sharma,

whose company hosts the Indian mirror of the extremely popular CricInfo site, "For
most of us, these sites are the public face of our company. By developing these sites we

are able to convince companies of our ability to do a good job of designing their specific

sites." The money today quite clearly lies in web site development for the corporate

world. Be it the public sector Air India or the Amul Cooperative, most Indian companies

today want that address. And if this address comes dressed in natty colors with a fair

amount of interactivity thrown in, then they do not mind shelling out a packet for it.

hspace="0" width="312" height="200">Though here too competition has meant rates

ranging from as little as Rs 500 per page per annum to a comprehensive web site

development and hosting that could cost anything up to Rs 15 lakh for the full year. A

number of small shop operations are springing up around existing DTP facilities to provide

the page while you wait for services. But Kapoor almost disdainfully calls this the,

"HTMLization of the DTP world." According to him, "The trick is not in

being able to put up a web site at dirt cheap rates, almost anyone can do that. The real

challenge is trying not to convert the web site into an electronic version of the

brochure. After all, the very nature of the Web is to be interactive and these kind of

sites do not achieve that." But Viraj Savant, Director, DBS Internet, is a little

kinder when he says, "these kinds of Internet shops also serve a purpose. They allow

companies with limited budgets the chance to get a presence on the Web. They are important

and maybe termed an evolution for most of today''s Data Entry shops."

Moving up the value chain are the Internet

firms. Small creative domains run either as a spin-off from bigger

business-Rediff-on-the-Net, DBS Internet, Webworth, or set up by entrepreneurs with gold

dust in their eyes. These can be termed as the Brahmins of the web creation trade. Here

it''s web site development that is the buzzword. The Brahmins charge a pretty packet for

their services, but for your money they will take it upon themselves to inculcate the web

culture into your organization. Says Savant, "The challenge for us today is not to

convince companies to have a web site. Most of them are aware of the Internet and are

eager to have the presence. But the problem is most companies see the creation of the web

site in the domain of their IS departments. This means the commitment from the top

management is sometimes not what it should be."

To get that commitment, the Brahmins take

upon the role of educating companies on them. Says Kapoor, "A large part of our time

actually goes in educating users on the need to keep their web sites dynamic." The

indications are that they are doing it and doing a pretty good job of it too. Most of

these companies have turnovers of a few lakh at the lower end to maybe a couple of crore

at the upper end. That puts them in the region of scores of other companies in the IT

industry. But what sets them apart is their rate of growth. Savant is confident of

recording a 600-percent growth rate this year. Look at him a bit surprised, and he gently

reminds you that the industry is itself growing at 300 percent and the more established

companies growing at twice the speed of the industry. Yes, it''s over a very small base,

but when was the last time an industry recorded growth in excess of 300 percent?

Ecommerce Or The Big Bucks Story



Ecommerce will be the biggest driver for Internet usage in the country. Without this you
can forget about the Internet really taking off. ecommerce is exactly what the doctor

ordered. That''s the web guru''s answer to a simple question. What will really drive the

growth of Internet in the country? His answer can actually be summed up in a

word-ecommerce. But the greatest-ever driver is just not moving today. Maybe, it needs a

little push. Or more appropriately, maybe all it needs is just a little dose of policy.

Says Ganesh, "Ecommerce

is a huge market that is just waiting to happen." The operative word here is waiting.

Waiting not for any lack of initiative on the part of the enterprising entrepreneurs.

Waiting not because of a want of a market. But waiting for the green signal from the

government. RBI regulations still do not permit the use of credit card without a physical

signature from the party. This means all Net transactions are out. Also, says Sandeep

Shirodkar, Manager (Web and Enterprise Business Development), Silicon Graphics India,

"The DoT''s archaic regulations of encryptions is one of the reasons why we are really

not sure if ecommerce can take off." Things have to change, and yes they do. But in

the meantime, the young ''uns are going about the business of business with typical Indian

ingenuity. Bababazaar accepts cash on delivery. `On cards'' is a scheme where each of the

bazaar''s couriers will carry credit card verification machines. So you end up paying by

card, but only at the time of receiving the goods rather than while ordering them. This is

true for most elementary ecommerce activities currently underway. So you have NIIT

Netvarsity which accepts credit cards on the Net from every other country but India. In

India, it''s either checks or Demand Drafts. Says Nilanjana Paul, Manager of Netvarsity

"This is definitely not the best way for us to do business. But we cannot do anything

about it till such a time that the RBI regulations change."

Giving Indian

Industry A Presence

It is not a business house. Neither is

Indian industry its business. But the Internet is and the Electronics, Software and

Computers Export Promotion Council (ESC) is using the Web to drive a better deal for

Indian industry. Its web site www.indiansources.com already lists over a thousand small

and medium companies in a diverse range of activities. For this it charges the company a

nominal Rs 1,500 a year. Says RH Naqvi, Executive Director of ESC, "The idea is to

provide the smaller companies the chance to have a Web presence." Because of its

rather large user base ESC is able to effectively advertise the site both online and off.

The results are already beginning to show. Tandon bagged an order for hard-disks through

its home page on the site. Due to being registered with over 200 search engines,

indiansources is becoming the prime stop for many international companies. The site

registers over a lakh hits a month, and this is expected to substantially go further as

the number of companies increases. Naqvi has targeted 5,000 companies by the end of this

year. It does not matter much whether it achieves the target or not, since it is already

the largest listing of Indian companies on the Net.

Change is a word the pioneers of ecommerce

are hoping will happen soon. Says Saxena, "People will really start buying off my

site, if I can offer them the advantage of paying online too. I can''t do that now, but I

am confident that things will change pretty soon." Note: it''s change they are waiting

and watching for. They are ready, now it''s up to the RBI to take off the one stumbling

block that comes in their way. In the meantime, they are going about giving ecommerce

facilities to users from other countries.

Training Or Creating The Content

Creators



Shirodkar says the
demand for Internet savvy professionals will exceed the demand for IT professionals by the

turn of the century. According to conservative estimates, there will be as many as 15 lakh

openings for professionals in various aspects of web content development. This is not an

opportunity the training institutes are willing to let go in a major hurry. Courses are

springing up offering everything from HTML coding to detailed two-year courses on

developing, hosting and maintaining a web site. Says ABPR Reddy, COO, IIS Infotech Ltd,

"This is a huge opportunity for training institutes as the demand for professionals

is going to rise with the increased awareness of this new medium." Reddy, for one,

intends to ride this demand. IIS Infotech is setting up a country-wide network of websity

training centers to take full advantage of this demand. The other institutes too are not

letting off. NIIT, for example, already has courses that tackle this demand and more

importantly has plans that will see it get a bigger share of this exploding market.

Again, the Net, being the Net, offers two

kind of opportunities to the training institutes. One, is to offer training courses about

the Internet and the other is to offer courses on the Web. While the first segment is

already explosive, it is the second one which has the greater long-term potential. For

developing courses on the Internet have the scope of developing and providing a range of

courses. Also, the market here again is global in nature. Says Paul, "We are looking

at getting a large chunk of the market for casual training in the US and European

countries." The Netvarsity concept, according to Paul, cannot be too hot for India

where the tradition of being taught by teachers is still very prevalent. The challenge for

sites like the Netvarsity then is get its marketing right. Says Paul, "The cost of

marketing a concept like the Netvarsity on the Net is simply phenomenal. We do not have

the budgets that Net successes like Yahoo! or Hotmail have, so we have to get by with very

little."

Growing With The Web

"I will go wherever the Internet

goes." That is in the future, meanwhile ABRP Reddy, COO of IIS Infotech, plans to set

up 100 Websity centers in the metros in two years. These centers will focus on providing

education on various aspects of the Internet. Though the target is ambitious, Reddy is

confident of achieving it. He says, "We got over 120 responses from Delhi alone when

he had asked for franchisees. Everyone realizes the business potential for providing

business on the Internet." Regarding turnover, Reddy is confident of touching Rs 50

crore once the 50 centers are up and running. For the first year, he is looking at a

target of Rs 3 crore and the growth continues to be exponential year after year.

In fact, the cost of marketing is the other

end of the web-side story. Yes, the Web is a huge opportunity. Yes, India has caught the

web wave fairly early. And yes, we are going to see companies that evolve into MNCs based

on their web presence. But for this to happen, companies will have to tackle the cost of

web advertising. With close to 7 lakh web sites already up and counting, getting noticed

in the crowd is becoming increasingly a question of how much money power you can put in.

NIIT cannot put in much. So they are also satisfied if their site does not make it to the

top 10 list of most visited sites. Says Paul, "We are using whatever infrastructure

we have in the US to create an awareness about what we are doing. After that we will have

to be satisfied with the slow but steady stream of visitors who hit our sites."

Etcetra Or The Imagination Thing



The beauty of the opportunity facing India is that like Cisco''s Batra says, "you are
only limited by your imagination." So you have the guys at Am-Pro Information Systems

who have created what they call a Delhi-wide intranet. Or you have the website

www.goldkist.net which lists the prices of most computer components and peripheral

devices. You also have bababazaar.com and the country''s first email-based newspaper that

can be yours for as little as Rs 75 a year-called Newstec. But, like Shirodkar says,

"There is today a crying need to set up a search agency which is able to search

documents and present it in the format required by the person. Personally, I do not have

time to sift through the thousands of documents that each search throws up." This is

one idea. The other is to become a consultant. After all, how many companies really know

what to do or how to tackle this whole business of business on the Internet. The ideas are

unlimited. And with the Internet, so is the opportunity. It is now up to the new

generation as well as the old to take it up.

Of course, if it was as easy as that, the

country would have seen a whole slew of millionaires or budding millionaires. That there

are not and that the pioneers still function out of bargain basements is because the

Internet is still the opportunity of tomorrow. Today it has the potential, but today it

lacks the scope to realize that potential. The stumbling blocks in the road to Net fame

and fortune are many. From an indifferent service provider, to a lack of proper phone

lines, to the very expensive costs of logging on, to a thousand other factors. But the

challenge lies in overcoming these hurdles and emerging as the giants of tomorrow.

SURAJIT AGARWAL