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Why the Change? And What has Changed?
It was nearly ten years ago, in February 1996, that a small group of us set up the first web server on the Indian subcontinent, www.rediff.com, in a tiny room in one of the bylanes of the historic part of Bombay. Next day the logs of the first 12-hour activity showed a million hits -- all from the United States and all on the News and Current Events pages. Clearly from Indians in the United States hungry for India news since, at that time, there were practically no Internet users in India. We quickly strengthened our tiny roster of journalists and set out on a journey to be an Internet site serving the needs of Indians worldwide.
In April 2001, we bought India Abroad, the New York-based weekly newspaper that has been the voice of Indian Americans for 35 years and ran it pretty much as a standalone operation while rediff.com has evolved with the Internet industry to become one of the dozen or so major portals of the world.
We believe our worldwide users will find us more useful if we combine these two offerings -- rediff.com and India Abroad. They can now reach us seamlessly through the Internet, print and mobile in the United States.
We also realize that as India reclaims its position as one of the top economic and political powers of the world, reading news from India is no longer an exercise in nostalgia. People following India news are no longer just those of Indian origin. India news now represents news about business opportunities, social trends and cultural innovations. Events in India now have worldwide impact.
The new rediff.com India Abroad web site reflects this new orientation and offers many new tools to follow India:
Check out NewsHound, a new tool to track breaking news and features from 700 news sources in India and worldwide.
Try Connexions, our new social networking tool that is already popular with our India-based users.
Experience the excitement of the mobile revolution that is altering the face of communication in the world.
Try out our improved Search.
Store and share your photos worldwide on our new photo album feature
Speak to anyone anywhere else in the world for absolutely no charge -- using the upgraded version of Bol, our Instant Messenger, now equipped with p2p, VoIP technology. Use it to send text messages to any mobile phone in India. Try the new chat rooms integrated tightly with Bol.
Like we did that day in February nearly ten years ago, we now wait with bated breath for your comments and reactions at
Ajit Balakrishnan
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