BT dot.com/e-class

The New e-Lite

Sunset industries embracing sunrise technologies spells survival. So hopes steel baron L.N. Mittal, 46, who wants e-commerce to be the Ispat Group's primary means of doing business tomorrow. He's making Ispat change its strategies and business processes, transform traditional interaction with customers, suppliers, and employees, and search for new ways to deliver e-value. Who said traditional CEOs can't e-volve?

B2B's the way to be, believes Sanjay Shetty, 27, the CEO of DBS Internet. That's why he has set up Enterprise b2b.com, which, he claims, is India's first B2B e-commerce portal-although indiamarkets.com and guru. com did get there first. But, if he's got his business model right, Shetty could be a winner2B.

Will he be India's first e-millionaire? When Rediff.com goes public-probably in February or March, 2000-the value of its shares will determine the net worth of CEO Ajit Balakrishnan, 51, who personally holds a 30.50 per cent equity stake in the company. Watch this space-and the NASDAQ ticker.

At 23, Vishal Gondal is game for anything. Especially for setting up India's first on-line gaming e-biz site, Indiagames.com. Gondal-whose start-up is called Indiagames Ltd-expects to make money from the venture by co-branding games with companies like ICICI. An instinctive entrepreneur--when in Class IX, he earned Rs 60,000 for putting together a computerised mailing-list for a bank-Gondal is almost certainly one of the e-ntrepreneurs to watch out for.

He may well become Shri Internet Bharat. First-mover Vinay Chhajlani, 36, is betting on Webduniya, which carries news, Bollywood chat, sports, Indian culture, arts and music, religion, festivals, rituals, and e-mail-all of it in Hindi. If vern's the way to go-as many analysts believe-Chhajlani's speaking the language of paise.

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