Ann als of Library Scie nce a nd Docume nt ation 47 , 2: 2000: 53-62.

SURFING FOR INDIAN INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET: A CASE STUDY

B R Nagar
V V Lakshmi
VK Gupt
Indian National Scientific Documentation Centre
14 Satsang Vihar Marg
New Delhi-11 00 67

Dea :~ with Internet, its historical background, THE INTERNET and WORLD WIDE WEA
various services provided by it and about the
intricacies involved in searching. The prominent Internet is a cooperative venture with the largest
India n sites available on INTERNET with special network association of the people. It is estimated
reference to Science and Technology are that millions of users in around 75 nations are
discussed in detail. accessing the facility. At this point of time, nobody
can predict accurate figures about the number of
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND computers connected as internet is increasing at
the rate of 10% in size every day. Internet is
The Internet which is also known as the mother of proving to be the precursor to the information
all networks is the means 00 processing superhighway.
information in a most democratic way irrespective
of any caste Gr religion . Internet, a collection of There are two types of tools available to support
interlinked computer networks, connects millions searching on the Web. These include the search
of networks and the rate of increase in its use and engines and browsers . A search en.gine is a
new subscribers is growing very rapidly. Internet retrieval mechanism which performs the basic
started in 1969 as a single US network, i. e., retrieval task, the acr.eptance of the query, a
ARPANET, a network created by Advanced comparison of the query with each of the records
Research Project Agency of the US Department in a database, and the production of a retrieval set
of Defence . This network linked researchers in as output. The primary application of such search
various organisations and enabled them to share engines is to provide access to the resources that
resources and information . In early 1980's, this are available on the WWW and stored on many
network split into two - one for military use and different servers. Browsers support browsing on
other for civilian purposes. The interconnection the Web; this involves succesive retrieval of
between them came to be known as internet. Other individual documents on the basis of som e
networks such as BITNET (Because its Time relationship existing between one document an d
Network) , CSNET (Compute r Science Network) , another. This is achieved through hypertext
NSFNET(National Science Foundation Network) , systems which offer representation of the links .
JANET and NREN (National Research an d The most widely used hypertext system is th e
Education Network ) were developed and Wor ld Wide Web (WWW) . The brows ing is
connected with the internet. Internet is thus a supported through :
collection of interlinked computer networks, or a
network of networks . It provides global connect ivity • An addressing system that allows the location
via a me sh of netw orks using the TCP /I P of any object stored on a networked computer
protocols. to be un iquely id ent ifi e d b y a Unifor m
Resource Locator (URL) .

Vol 47 No 2 June 2000 53

 B R NAGAR, V V LAKSHMI and V K GUPTA

• A Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) that information is presented in the form of interlinked
allows the authors of a document to identify hypertext documents instead of going from menu
particular locations within their document as to submenu . This idea leads to the concept of
the source of the links and to specify the Wo rld Wide Web.
location of the target of those links .
The World Wide Web (WWW) is a system of
• A Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) that Internet servers that supports hypertext to access
allows copies of target documents stored on several Internet protocols on a single interface.
remote servers to be retrieved and displayed. Almost every protocol type available on the Internet
is accessible on the Web . These include: E-ma il,
• A client program or Web brows er such as Telnet, FTP and HTTP. The Worl d Wide Web
Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer that provides a single interface for accessing all these
provides the user with cont rol over the retrieva l protocols . This creates a convenient and user-
process and over the links to be activated. friendly environment. It is no longer necessary to
learn all these protocols w ith in separate ,
The Gopher and Veronica were the most basic of command-level envirMments . The Web gathers
search utilities which allowed browsing of servers all these together into a single system. Information
of information in a menu format and Archie , an retrieval on the Web has been made- possible ·
interface to a catalog of public ly available through the Hypertext Systems which offer the
information allowed one to search for a particular representation of the links. A single hypertext
file or document across the Internet . With the document can contain links to many other
introduction of the World W ide Web these documents .
protocols now have become almost obsolete .
RETRIEVING DOCUMENTS ON THE WEB
THE WEB
The Uniform Resource Locator or URL specifies
With its vast geographical boundaries, the Internet the Internet address of a file stored on a host
could not house all its information repositories in computer connected to the Internet. Every file on
a single place. There was no centralised control the Internet has a unique URL. Web software
of internet sites. Those having information had programs use the URL to ret rieve the file from the
to advertise their services by using bulletin boards. host computer and the Directory in wh ich it res ides.
The first effort in th is direction was in the form of URLs are translated into numeric addresses using
WAIS , i. e., Wide Area Information Service. It the Domain Name Sytem (DNS) . The format of
cons isted of few designated ser/ ers wh ich kept a the URL is :
directory of servers having the actual information .
The servers indexed the database they hold so Protocol :/lhost/path/fi Ie name
that searching through it became easy. To access
or search for any information , one connects to For example in the site ,
one of the top level servers and then proceeds
from there. WAIS was successful as first attempt http://www.thetimesofindia .com
to provide unified access to internet. Gopher
went a few steps further and provided q way to Http stands f6r the protocol , WWW stands for
connect to any kind of information and not just to World Wide Web i. e. Web or the Internet. Th e
database servers conforming to particular middle name belongs to a particular organisation .
protocol. Gopher is mainly a menu based retrieval The third part refers to the type of organisation to
system where information was presented as a which the site belongs . Here 'com ' means a
directory or a menu . Selecting a men u item or commercial organisation. Similarly 'edu' means
a directory, entry will either fetch the relevant educational institutions, while 'org' normally stands
information or will provid e with a subdirectory or a for voluntary or non profit organisation . In addition
submenu wh ich can further be selected on . With to the above, dozens of domain names have been
the advent of hypertext based systems , the assigned to identify the country and locate files

54 An n L ib Sc i Doc
 SURFING FOR INDIAN INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET

stored on host computers in different countries a lot of patience and devotion as the number of
around the world . sites or web pages retrieved on any particular
query are immense. It is very diificult to sift and
SERVICES PROVIDED BY INTERNET sieve to retrieve the most useful site. Suppose for
a given query, one has visited only 49 sites and
A range of services are available on the net. These found all absurd information , whereas the 50th
include : site may contain useful information , but same
need not be true for each and every cpse as we .
(i) E-mail : distributes electronic messages and know that there is no system in the world which is
files to one or more electronic mail.boxes. 100% efficient or perfect whether it is any online
system or internet. However a number of search
(ii) Electronic journals engines sort the information retrieved on the basis
of relevancy.
(iii) Online courses
(b) Note Down the Useful Sites
(iv) Access Library Catalogs
While searching with internet it so happens that
(v) Join discussion groups within the stipulated time a proper solution for a
given query may not be found, but experience
(vi) Search online databases shows that surfing the net leisurly retrieves an
exact article/reference or what the user is usually
(vii) Obtain software , graphics and video interested in. To remember these sites, it is
imperative that regular habit of noting down all
(viii) Electronic radio broadcasts alld so on . these sites or adding them to the bookmarks be
cultivated . This helps in acceSSing these sites at a
later date which is a very convenient and time
SEARCHING WITH INTERNET saving task.

To search for and retrieve the maximum c) Intricacies Involved In Searching Internet
information on the net, the following points need
to be kept in mind . For doing internet searches , one ShOl.rld always
keep in mind the site/sites that are to be searched
(a) Evaluation of Internet Resources for a specific query. It will be advisable to repeat
the same query to the prominent sites of internet,
There has been a lot of media exposu re in relation i.e., Altavista, Infoseek, Hotbot, Excite .
to the Internet. There are varied opinions about
internet and its usefulness. Some feel that it is For doing the search/searches through internet,
merely a waste of time , as far as the authenticity one can also go through web directory say
and quality of the information available is 'Yahoo. Com'. One can visit the site and decide
concerned . For some it is impossible to get the category to which it falls . Therefore it generally
information from the disorganized , decentralized takes longer time for a site to appear in a web
and even chaotic mass of information . Others feel directory than through a search engine .
that it is a wonderfu l media that offers solution to
all the information retrieval problems. Despite the Some of the prom inent sea rch engines and their
concern about the lack of structure with electronic features are summarized below :
information , th e traditiona l criteria used for print
media are equall y ap plic ab le in th is context. • ALTAVISTA
Potential reasons to r use of information ;nay be
that they offer cu rrent information, better search It is one of the best sites to search. It has also got
capabilities, mu ltipie ana networK ed access , etc. the advanced search capab ilities like combinin g
Howeve r retrie ving information from Net requires the main keyword and its va rious aspects with

Vo l 47 No 2 Ju ne 2000 55
B R NAGAR, V V LA KSHMI and V K GUPTA

boolean operator i. e. AND , OR , NOT. Some of information from Indian sites on net is not a fruitful
the special features Include the provision of exercise. It is usually felt that one can only retrieve
"Refine" tool for acronyms. One can enter a information on topics like recipes or horoscopes.
keyword as usual in the search box and cl ick on For retrieving S& T information one had to depend
submit. The "Refine your search link" option on the CD-ROM 's, Online searches and manual
reveals a list of topics related to the term .. Clicking sources. The scenario is chang ing very rapidly.
on the topic will bring up a list of topics. For each There are now a number Ind ian sites for specific
topic, select require or exclude from drop-down information . In this study some of these Indian
menu in order to narrow down to the most specific sites have been surveyed and the information
term . available on them has been studi ed in detail.

Search "like title" "VIRTUAL LIBRARY" will restrict Some of these are discussed below:
the search to the mixed -case phrases found in
the title of web document . (l) Indian Books on Internet

• EXCITE It is now possible to surf the net and browse and

purchase books from Ind ia or books written or
Offers simple search optio ns and also supports publ ished by Indians. Three usefu l sites available
some advanced search options . Use plus si gn fo r this purpose include:
(+) to specify that all documents have that word
or use a minus sign (-) to specify that none of the Indianbookshop.com, ibcindia .com and
documents have that word . Excite also supports dkagencies. com
full boolean operators and syntax.
a) www.indianbookshop.com
o INFOSEEK
It is on e of the leading bookstores on internet
It only offers simple query opti ons , but search which gives the widest coverage of books
words may be limited to parti cu lar fi elds (such as on all the major categories by renowned Indian
with in document ti tle ), or eliminated (precede the authors. This site enables one to explore the
word with a sign "-") or required (precede the word information on various catego ries like cu lture ,
with a plus sign "+") relig ion, science, ayurveda, history, sports ,
handicrafts, e xports. travels , politic s,
For more information one can a/so see meditation and many more. The number of
'/NFOSEEK HELP" books available on this site IS ever increasing
with thousands of books added each day. It
• HOTBOT is even possible to get the details of books
belonging to 18th century. A powerful search
It offers a Simple search and an Expert search . engine allows one to search on a numbe r of
Simple search supports the Boolean 'AND' an d fields such as Author, ISBN No . , Book title
'OR' operators. and so on .

For phrase searching, one can enclose the phrase (a) www. bcindia.com
Indouble quotes ( eg o"Electronic library") . Expert
search also suppo rts data limits, med ia :ype The site being one of India's foremost and
(VRML, Audio , Javasc ript, etc) and locatio n efficient online booksource, the newly released
(country, etc.). . books on anyone's subject of interest can be
seen here . Orde r can be placed through
INDIAN SITES AVAILABLE ON INTERNET internet and books are delive red at the door
step.
Th e general belief is that searching for the S& T

56 Ann Lib Sci I), '.

 SURFING FOR INDIAN INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET

(b) www.dkagencies.com to cater to oil, gas and petroleu m.

As a service orga nisation of over 3-decade • Bharat Petroleum (www. bharatpetroleum .

long standing in thp fie ld of book trade , OK com)
Ag ency has got a data base that comprises of
over hundred thousand Indian titles in Engli sh One of the three. la rgest petroleum refining
language alone. Book sea rch is intended to companies among the government sector plays
prim anl y aid th e general reade r or us er. a vita l 'role in the oil re lated economy of the country.
Hence renderrn g of titles does not conform to
AACR or other techn ical cataloguing format s. • State Bank of India (www. statebankofindia .
The details about the book can be had by its : com)

Aut hor SBI , the largest bank in India having the largest
Titl e cl ientele with its operations spread allover the
Place of publicati on co untry. Caters to a wide range of customers .
Publisher
ISBN • Reserve Bank Of India (www. rbi. org. in)
Subject approach RBI , the nodal agency for all banking operations
in India is a monetary agency guiding the financial
The wildcard search facility is available as also sectors of the country.
the boolean "AND " mode .
• Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (www. vsnl.net .
The re are many mo re Indian sites on books not in)
included he re .
VSNL is the topmost Internet service provider in
(ii) Indian Companies/Establishments India today. All overseas communication facilities
are provided by VSNL , one of the largest
A search was conducted on the Internet in communication company in the government
re sponse to a query on top public sector - sector.
Government Indian companies/establishments.
While surfing for this information on net , the site • ICICI Bank (www. icici.com)
madrasonline. com/business was visited which
provided this information under the title Business- One of the largest financial institutions in. India and .
Top Indian compan ies/establ ishments on the net a key institution playing vital role in shaping of
(Public Sector-Government. ). The names.of these industrial economy in the country.
establishments are as follows
• Air India
• Steel Authority of India: (www. sail.co. in)
It is a flag ship company of government caterrn g
The largest steel manufacturing and marketing to international air travel with its headquarters in
establishment in India has manufacturing units Mumbai (Bombay) . After cl icking on it, one ca n
established all over the count ry. get the informatfon on Air India, fl ights , inflight
service , frequent flyers and trave l guide .
• Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (www. bhel.
co m) After cl icking on the name of each company, one
ca n find out information on corporate profi le,
The largest power equ ipment manufactu rer financ ial performance , business sector, product
catering to all sectors of energy namely therma l, an d service and future plans of th e compan y.
hydro, nuclear, solar, oceanographic. One of the Same information can be retrieved through the web
largest manufacturing facilities located in South sites given in italics.
Asi a also has divers ified en gineering capabilities

Vol 47 N o 2 June 2000 57

B R NAGAR, V V LAKSHMI and V K GUPTA

The site madrasonline. com/business also How to contact us Mode of payments

provides information on Chennai cily, its
mdustries. hot spots, transport along with online Visit home page Statistics
trading services on automobiles, food and food
products, garments , leather, Ayurveda , Other relevant sites Search EPIDOS-
Homeopathy etc . INPADOC
Order full text Indian Patent offices
iii) Indian Ministries, Departments, States,
Union Territories, Organisations, Indian Complete patent Controversial patents
Missions Abroad, Educationallnstitutionsl document through fax
Universities , Taskforces, Councils And
Documents ctc. Frequently asked
questions
www. nie. in. is the URl for getting information
on any of the above . (iv) www. Punenet. ernet. in

National Informatics Centre (NIC) , is a premier The holdings information in the libraries and other
information technology organization in India , resource centres in Pune can be searched and
committed to providing state of the art solutions retrieved through this site . It is a joi nt programme
for the IT needs of the Government of India at all of University of Pune , the Centre for Development
levels. NIC carries the distinction of being the of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) and the National
largest organization in the country in this area and Chemical laboratory (NCl). Pune-Net maintains
has setup a satellite based nationwide computer centralized databases of information resources
communication network called NICNET, with over available in the participating libraries of Pune, thus
1400 nodes con n .,ng the national capital, state user gets up-to-date information at one place. The
capitals and district headquarters to one another. directory of participating libraries in this joint
NIC has a nationwide presence with its offices venture can also be accessed from here. The user
spread across the country, from Leh to Andaman can retrieve the information through title , ISBN ,
and Nicobar Islands. dictionary and boolean search in case of books .
In case of periodicals, the search can be done
For further information one can contact National through title and holding details as access points.
Informatics Centre , Ministry of Information In order to know the holding details of libraries and
Technology, A block, CGO Complex , lodhi Road other resource centres in Pune , this is one of the
New Delhi -1 10003 Telephone : 91-11-4361133/ valuable Indian sites.
4363692 Fax: 91-11-4362628
(v) www. insdoc. org
E-mail:webmaster@www.nie.in.
Information on resources and services of INSDOC.
In order to search the in formation on this site for a premier organisation in the field of documentation
U. S. IEuropean patents or to find out the list of and information science, technology, services and
Indian patent offices, on e can use the site pk2id. systems is available from this site. INSDOC is a
de lhi. nic . Here database access is password national laboratory under the Counci l of Scientific
protected and available free to the registered users and Industrial Research (CSIR ). IN SDOC 's
only. Reg istration can be done by sending the E- activities fall under five broad catego ries.
mail to NIC.
1. Services , Products and Publications
Pk2id.delhLnie.in prov id es the foJlowing 2. Projects in Competency Areas
information along with patents information 3. National Information Resource
4. Education and Training
Inventory Services offered 5. International Colloboration

Ann Li b Sci Doc

 SURFING FOR INDIAN INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET

Its other competency areas are: library automation, creating infrast ructurs like networks -- without
library networks , computer networking , CD-ROM bothering about organizing information that has to
networking, design and development of databases , flow through . As a result a large number of
feasibility studies and design, establishment and networks remain grossly under-utilized.
operatio n a l management of library -cum -
information centres . Apart from developing the information centres,
networks and database projects, NISSAT conducts
Wide dissemination of S& T information is an various training programmes, workshops ,
important aim of INSDOC, for this purpose. it seminars and the annual 'Information Today and
has a network of reg ional centres located at Tommorow' meets to propagate the importance
Bangalore, Calcutta and Chennai. of organizing S& T information .

INSDOC also provides access to online systems The NISSAT Web site provides the .following
such as DIALOG and STN. It has an electronic information under nine headings:
library with over 3000 full text journals , patents,
conference proceedings on CD-ROMs. It provides a) About NISSAT
a range of services from these resources . b) Its objectives
Information can be had about the various training c) Nissat centres
programmes conducted from time to time. The d) Its national activities
site also provides the list of current and e) Its international activities
forthcoming products of CD-ROM available from f) Address of NISSAT
INSDOC . g) Scientific productivity
h) R&D application
(vi) www.nissat.org/centres.htm. i) Newsletter

NISSAT, the National Information System for (vii) Journal in the field of Chemistry and
Science and Technology, plays a vital role in the Environmeryt
field of information science and technology as it
has the mandate to cover the entire spectrum of If one is interested in the field of chemistry and
science and technology. Since its inception in 1977, environment, the information is available from the
NISSAT has emphasised on the information Indian reseach journal in the given field through
content, its development and utilization. This is a the web site http://www.chemenviron.com.
tedious activity in which very few information One can become the member of this journal.
systems wants to be involved. Most of them invest Membership fee of this journal under different
their monetary and knowledge resources in categories is as follows

Membership Fees
Indian Foreign

Annual Rs . 200/- US Dollar $20

Life Rs . 2000/- US Dollar $200
Fellow Rs . 5000/- US Dollar $500

' Including airmail changes

Vol 47 No 2 Ju ne 2000 59
B R NAGAR, V V LA KSHMI and V K GUPTA

Anyone who is interested in this journal can fill up A large number of web sites are available on
the form. Business Informati on of Ind ia.

(viii) Prominent Search Engines For Finding (ix) www.brint.com/india.htm

The Web Sites On Indian Business /
Marketing Information As Well As In The This is one of the prominent site in the field of
Field Of S& T And Others bu si ness and information technology in Ind ia. It
focuses on business sites and busine ss issues ,
Indian information on education , business . arts, technological sites and technological issues. The
sports, news , entertainment etc. can be retrieved whole information is covered under 4 heads which
through the search engine KHOJ . One can also are as follo ws .
go to other search engines like dhan. samacha r,
Indialine , bawarchi and khel from here. The • India: news, magazines, newspapers
Information on business and industry th at can be • India: business sites an d business issues
retrieved from here includes: • Ind ia: technology sites and technology issues
• Other resources on ind ia
Companies (12333) New General (193) New
Directories (316) New Organisations(205) The range of information includes the facts and
Exporters (293) New Quotes(20) figures about India. exciting business opportunities
in India which include general overview of Ind ian
After clicking over the above mentioned headings, economy, its growing role in global business ;
one can find out the informat ion on Indian India's export import policy; foreign exchange
co mpanies. interface between global importers controls and taxes. One can also go through "Th e
and Indian exporte rs on given product/products Hindu" which is the online edition of India's national
and export-Imporl . . . ,.. i:cy of India al1d daily updates newspaper. Other newspapers available on this
on the Indian ecoflo my. It also provides Insights, site are Bli tz Weekly. India Ab road. Indian
ad vice , pro ject reports , tender Information , American weekly newspaper, New India-Times
directory type in formation and consu lt?tion to online and so on . Another prominent site for Ind ian
foreign firms interested in the hugely magnificent News and Magazine is http://webhead.com/
emerging market of India which is a must for global wwwvl/india/india216. htm!. From this site one
minded companies . This is probably the most can also obtain the universal list of Ind ian
popular se arch engine from India which would periodicals after clicking on the heading TULIP .
open doo rs to the trade community of the world . Trade information about india can be accessed
under business sites and business issues. Usefu l
A lot of useful information can be retrieved in S& T information is available under the given heading,
areas . For instance after clicking over the heading one has to simply select and click over it. On e can
Medicine , one can get excel lent information on also get industry profile of core indian industries.
a yurveda, homoeopathy. ac upressu re, Information ll n In dian infotec h sec tor, daily
panchkarma, massage, yoga, siddha, relkl and information technology news , infor mation
so on . The site also provides Information about tec hnology trends, software development in india .
the medical confe rences which are going to be and information about JITNET : the Japan India
held in India. Information is also available about Tecnnology Network can be accessed under
the various correspondance courses organised by technology sites and technology issue s.
open un ive rsities in the field of a lfern ative biographical profiles of ren owned indian scientists
medicine. Apart from alternative medicines , it also are also available on this site.
provides access to the latest information of world's
database s in the field of genetic engineering , Unde r other resources on India. one can get the
sequence analysis and structure and function of informa tio n which Includes facts and figures ,
blomolecules. One of the world 's largest database cur rent news and events . Indian business and
on Animal Virus InformatIOn System(AVIS ) IS also Industry and so on. Discovery of Ind ia is also
available on the web. available here .

hO Ann Lib Sci Dol'

 SURFING FOR INDIAN INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET

(x) www.trade-india.com India-future. com/manishchem/index. html)of

international repute deal ing with all kinds of
It provides the trade information of India. From chemicals. Another site is of Deepak Chemicals
this site one can browse and search through (www.deepakchemicals.com) . The objective of
exporter's yellow pages and then order for the this site is to promote the exports from india.
desired product. It also includes Indian importers'
directory, international pages. export import trade It is very difficult to accommodate each and every
flash and trade Indian bulletin board .. business site here, one can also search www.
indiamarkets. com, and www. Indiaventures.
(ix) The Exporter's Yellow Pages com for business information.

Available since 1990, it has been bridging the gap SUGGESTIONS FOR POPULARIZATION OF
between the Indian Exporters and global importers. INDIAN WEB
The current 8th edition of Exporter's Yellow pages
carries authentic information on more than 46000 In order to popularize the Indian web, the focus
Indian exporters classified under different business should be on content migration . It aims at migrating
headings all the information from the print to electronic media
to port onto the net and bring it out from corner to
(x) Indian Importers' Directory the centre stage . The Collectorate of Pune has
taken the lead in this respect and is in the process
It is the first and the only one of its kind. The current of making the web a single window for all the
third edition of Indian Importers Directory carries information about its departments. Th,e general _
information about more than 10,000 Indian public can apply for ration cards and track the
importers under various business headings . progress of their applications online . The
Government of Hyderabad is also exploiting the
(xi) International Pages potential of the net for the welfare of the common
man . Similar systems can be developed in
Being a gateway to foreign exporters and passport offices or other offices/departments which
manufacturers, here one can access authentic and are involved in public dealing . Another" good
comprehensive information on worldwide example of content migration is Rediff on the net.
exporters . It has migrated GMAT and GRE test content on
the web, thereby creating an entire community of
(xii) Export Import Trade Flash users . From this site users can take test on the
site , enroll for courses, get feedback on their
It is a monthly newsmagazine containing news and performances , buy books , sit for counselling
views related to India's export import trade . sessions with experts . As we are well aware , E-
commerce is not picking up in India because of
(xiii) Trade India Bulletin Board the bottlenecks like payment systems and security
issues but there are no such bottlenecks for
It is a worldwide interaction forum for the content migration . We also know that no
international trading community. One can leave technology is complete in itself. unless and until it
business messages (buying selling offer) here and reaches out to common man or masses . Internet
get connected to one 's prospective business connection should be proVided to school/colleges
partners around the globe. at large for its maximum utilization. It is also very
essential to provide such connection to /'Ural areas
(xiv) Indian Firm/Firms Dealing With All Types by opening cyber cafes , internet centres/booths
Of Chemicals and information should be made available to the
villagers in their specific areas (e . g. in the field of
Manish International is an Indian firm (web site: agriculture/setting up of small scale industries) in

Vol 47 No 2 J une 2000 61

 B R NAGAR, V V LAKSHMI and V K GUPTA

the language/languages in wh ich they are well New Delhi for his support and encou ragement.
conversant. Internet booths/centres can also utilize
the se rvIces of so me intermed iaries who can REFERENCES
trans late the informatIon available in eng lish into
th e lang uge/languages which is known by the 1) Web sites(referred to in this article)
villagers.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 2) Shflbbir Z Sharaf. Sharing the" Mi ndset,
Computers Today. 16,195; 2000; 68.
The authors are grateful to the Director, I~SDOC ,

62 Ann Lib Sc i Doc