Now the fine print.

This story makes a striking claim that India has reached its Internet subscriber target more than three years ahead of time.

India's Department of Telecommunication (DoT) had set a goal of 40 million Internet subscribers by 2010. As of March 2007, India had about 9.2 million PC-based Internet subscribers and 31.3 million mobile-based Internet users.

Naturally, ISPs are rubbishing this claim, saying that Internet access on mobiles and PCs is not the same. Also, India is nowhere near its target of 20 million broadband subscribers by 2010. The target for 2007 was set at 9 million broadband subscribers, while India had about 2.3 million broadband users as of March 2007.
Read more »

Social networking site Facebook is growing rapidly in India, according to a report by comScore. From 238,000 users in January 2007, Facebook has grown by 230 percent to 785,000 users from India in June 2007.

According to the report, Facebook's growth in India was remarkable between April and June 2007, when it added 323,000 users.
Read more »

According to a study carried out by industry body Assocham, India is likely to miss the broadband subscriber base target of 20 million by 2010 set by the Government.

There are about 2.5 million broadband subscribers in the country as of June 2007, as against the target of 3 million by 2005. Therefore, one does not need a study to predict that we will miss the 2010 target.
Read more »

The Taj Mahal has made it to the new list of seven wonders. Swiss-based for-profit corporation New Open World Corporation (NOWC) announced the results of a global poll to choose a new list of Seven Wonders of the World on Saturday. The contest generated tremendous enthusiasm in India with "Vote for Taj" fever gripping the country.

Taj Mahal, built by Mughal emperor Shahjahan in 1632, is a mausoleum located in Agra symbolizing the emperor's love for his wife.

Read more »

Agencyfaqs has a good interview with Mahendra Swarup, former MD and CEO of Times Internet, who operates Indiatimes.com, one of the top Internet portals in India. Mr Swarup steered Indiatimes through the Internet bust of 2000 to make it a leading Net portal and mobile content service (8888). He is currently the Chief Mentor at Smile Interactive, a top interactive services company in India. The article is a must-read for anyone having a stake in the Internet in India.
Read more »