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Net Gains (Mar 03, 98) |
First things first - heartfelt sympathies go out to all Internet
users - the Net in India has just been forced back to square one.
While we just have to cross our fingers and wait for better service
and better deals (as and when private ISPs do finally come in),
the image of our country has just taken a good beating. Imagine
the message sent out to investors worldwide who find another example
of how business opportunities can easily turn sour. Like the TRAI
striking down the policy a few hours before the ball could be
set rolling, instead of taking action long ago. And people wonder
why we're still a third world country... Voice your opinions
on the issue on the Net Gains Discussion Board.
It's that time of the month again - when Net Gains features
some of the favourite bookmarks of an Internet personality. This
month we take a look at some bookmarks that Mr. Bhavin G. Kadakia,
Head-IT at Indian Merchants' Chamber (IMC), finds indispensable
in his line of work. Mr. Kadakia is also an active member of many
professional IT organisations.
Close on the heels of the first Cyber Café in the Leela
Kempensik, Mr. Kadakia realised how important easy access to the
Internet, and primarily email was and started a Cyber Café
in the premises of the IMC, Churchgate. The distinguishing feature
of the IMC Cyber Café is the personalised service that
users unfamiliar with the Net get at no extra cost. However, Mr.
Kadakia has localised the Cyber Café concept by keeping
his target audience as those who need information from the Internet,
and not those who use it for entertainment. Mr. Kadakia has plans
to establish an "IMC-EDI Centre" to provide a
solution to Indian exporters who do not have the infrastructure
or the expertise to transfer their export related documents electronically.
His favourite bookmark of all time has to be the IMC website
- a site he has put a lot of time and effort into, treating it
like his own baby. The IMC is the biggest chamber of commerce
in Western India, and has made efforts to adopt and use the latest
technology. The IMC website (http://www.IMCnet.org) has recently
been revamped, and re-launched a little over a week ago. While
the site has the usual obligatory details about the IMC and it's
activities, a few outstanding features strongly merit mention.
Firstly, the site offers the facility of registering online -
be it for the many seminars organised by the IMC or booking one
of the IMC venues for a function or be it for registering your
organisation as a member of the IMC.
The most useful part of the IMC website however, is the members'
directory where members are listed under five categories : Manufacturer,
Trade, Finance & Banking, Profession, and Association. However,
thanks to technology, you don't have to browse through many possible
categories to find a particular member - the search facility available
makes life easy for visitors to the page. You can search by product
category and/or country and find out exporters or importers to
suit your requirements. For instance, someone from Timbuktu could
just log on to this page, and type in the kind of product he's
interested in trading in, and choose the country as Timbuktu,
and hit the search button. Within seconds, he's given a list of
possible traders who do business with Timbuktu for his product
category ! Moreover there are links to these members' web pages
with a business profile and other details about them that also
facilitate easy sending of a fax or an email from that page itself
! And all IMC members have their profile listed for free on the
site. These features are what go into making the IMC website a
very useful online resource - for people all around the world
!
This was just one of a big list of links that Mr. Kadakia ([email protected])
has bookmarked as very useful links for exporters and importers.
The rest have been put up as links to this week's column online.
So if you found these relevant, and are interested in trade directories,
databases, and trade bulletin boards, follow the links below !
- http://www.chemconnect.com/ - an excellent site for chemical traders/exporter/importers/manufacturers.
- http://www.netsource-asia.com/ - Asia's leading Internet Trade Directory.
- http://www.oanda.com/cgi-bin/ncc - 164 currency convertor.
- http://www.thomasregistered.com - Database of 1,55,000 american & canadian companies.
- http://www.pharmaindia.com - Free webpage & bulletin board for pharmaceuticals industry.
- http://www.wbn.org/directories.htm
- http://www.clickit.com/touch/home.htm
Trade Bulletin Boards : - http://www.tradematch.co.uk - Trade Match.
- http://www.tradeeasy.com - Trade Easy.
- http://www.cybercc.com/new/bbsg.htm
- http://www.bepop.it/trade/post.htm
- http://www.i-trade.com/exhibit/search/ - Search, Importers, Exporters, Service companies.