After free content, it's time now for free access. The Calcutta- based ISP Caltiger.com has launched the first free ISP service in the country in 4 cities: Calcutta, Jamshedpur, Mumbai, and Bangalore. This facility will be gradually increased to 34 more cities over a period of 2 months.

Satyam Infoway, the Chennai-based Internet services company, is partnering with Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) to launch its own private Internet gateway, which will be located at 5 strategic cities in the country.

Compaq Computer India has entered into an arrangement with Rediff.com, whereby 3 keys of Compaq's new feature-enriched Net keyboard will lead directly to 3 segments of the Rediff portal.

Iridium, the non-starter global mobile telephony company, has finally fallen by the wayside as all efforts to find a financier to bail it out have failed. Line dead?

e-alliances

• Chrysalis Capital has made its biggest investment to date by pumping Rs 20 crore into Zipahead.com.
• Indiainfo.com is entering into a number of alliances. VSNL is acquiring a 30 per cent stake in the horizontal portal. Morgan Stanley has also picked up a 7 per cent stake for $11.5 million.
• Spanish venture capitalist Transatlantic Corporation has picked up a 20 per cent stake in Caltiger.com.
• hdfc has taken a 10 per cent stake for $1 million in the Chennai-based IPF Online, a B2B e-Commerce start-up.
• US-based Blueshift Internet Ventures has picked up a 50 per cent stake in Chennai-based Indiamoviebiz.com, a B2B site for Indian cinema industry, catering to producers, distributors, and theatres.
• Canbank Venture Capital Fund has set aside a corpus of Rs.10.50 crore for infotech start-ups.
• A consortium including Edelweiss Capital, Rediff.com, and Jumpstartup.net have picked up a 30 per cent stake in the personal finance products portal, Apnaloan.com, which is expected to go on-line in May, 2000.

e-clicks

• The brick and mortar megaliths are waking up to the new economy.

  Top p-fin sites A smart listing for the e-investor

  equitymaster.com: Loaded with research reports, a portfolio tracker, and tax information, equitymaster ranks as one of Forbes' Top 150 sites. finsights.com: Enables loan transactions, finsights.com boasts of a digital advisor to calculate good tax-adjusted returns. icicidirect.com: An offshoot of ICICI Bank, icicidirect.com is positioned as an e-broking site; provides equity research for indiainfoline.com. indiainfoline.com: Apart from research reports, has portfolio tracker, application forms, primers, EMIS, and tax calculators. moneycontrol.com: With financial planning tools for new investors, moneycontrol also gives tax advice and has EMIS. motilaloswal.com: The offshoot of Motilal Oswal Securities will be leveraging strength in equity research to offer on-line trading. mutualfundsindia.com: One of Forbes' Top 150 sites, mutualfunds india.com is a deep vertical portal on the mutual funds industry. myiris.com: Investment Research and Information Services' site offers a comprehensive loan package, news and analysis, and broker research. sharekhan.com: Set up by equity solutions company SSKI, a fairly comprehensive, if a little slow, site on equities. wallet.watch.com: Satyamonline's money channel's USP is its ''My Wallet'' page, a customisable page to handle a user's investment portfolio.

   TISCO is planning a foray into e-Commerce to sell its products and has already set-up a team to work on the venture.

• Not to be outdone, the Steel Authority of India and L&T are planning to make an entry into e-Commerce.
• Ashok Leyland is setting up a B2C network to market its vehicles.
• The Times of India group will spin off its Net businesses into a new firm for a NASDAQ listing around July-August, 2000.

e-snippets

• Four Indian portals figure in Forbes' ''Best Of The Web List,'' a compilation of 150 global sites. They are Equitymaster.com and Mutualfundsindia. com under the category of finance portals. Horizontal portal 123india.com makes the grade and so does icicibank. com for cyberbanking.
• Stephen King's new novel, ''Riding the Bullet'' has become the first novel to be available only on the Net.

e-launches

• Jobstreet.com, the Pan Asian on-line recruitment solutions provider, has been launched in India. The competition is getting hot for Naukri.com.
• Akshay Software, in association with Easyspace of UK, will offer Internet domains and 25 MB of Web space at a cost of Rs 690 per annum in India.
• Delhi-based ISP Net4India has launched Net4domains.com, a domain registration site where names can be registered for Rs 650 per annum.

It's time for the ladies now

Women don't come to the Web to spend time. They come to save time,'' said Anna Zornosa, 38, Senior Vice-President, women.com-a US site which boasts 5 million unique visitors per month-in a recent interview. Is the slew of Indian sites aimed at women listening? For, despite healthy investments and a massive potential audience-only 28 per cent of the country's Web users are women-there is a marked lack of differentiation. Simply, most of these sites are trying to serve up what the traditional media-read: women's magazines-has on offer. And that means slimming lessons and yoga techniques to Thai cooking and career tips, and, of course, the staple on mom-in-law problems.

There are, however, some attempts to be different. Amit Burman's smartbahu.com, for instance, offers ideas and resources to get started on a home business. Footforward.com's @ yourservice provides useful information on creches, catering, and baby-sitting. And horizontal portals, like indiainfo.com and expressindia.com, are pushing content and links to their women sites. However, apart from footforward.com-which plans to sell skincare products, fragrances, and home furnishings on-line-none of the other sites has outlined any e-Commerce plans yet. Perhaps they should. According to USA Data.com/Mediamark Research, women in the US are shopping for almost everything including cars, making travel plans, and tracking investments. That's what is called a smart bahu.

-Rakhi Mazumdar

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