An equal measure of new-e ventures and internet-enabled old-e ones constitute Group Tata's response to the Net.

Roshni Jayakar

This elephant isn't just trying to dance; it's trying to do the samba. If things go well, the Rs 35,000-crore Tata Group will end up being as net-savvy as, well, Marc Andreessen. One of the men behind the wheel of the country's largest group's expedition into the wild wild web is 48-year-old R.R. Bhinge, whose business card reads CEO, Tata Management Services. Since February, 2000, Bhinge has made three presentations on the best way to leverage the Net to the group's Chairman Ratan Tata, and the Group Executive Office (geo), comprising R. Gopalakrishnan, Executive Director, Tata Sons, Kishore Chaukar, Managing director, Tata Industries, and Ishaat Hussain, Director, Tata Industries. Bhinge's recommendations have been tinged with caution: in May, 2000, when the American media was filled with stories about boo.com going bust, he was attending an executive development programme at the Wharton School. R. Gopalakrishnan, 56, Executive Director, Tata Sons, peppers his explanation of the group's level-headed approach to creating a Net-strategy with e-hyphenations: ''It's not an e-hurricane or an e-tornado... It is a pragmatic strategy-oriented awareness of what technology can do for the business. (It is about) getting companies to start applying these technologies.''

That doesn't mean you'll find a diktat from the geo to the 100-odd companies in the group to get up close and personal with the Net or else... Instead, each company has been left to chart out the specifics of how it will use the Net as a source of competitive advantage-much like, as Bhinge is quick to point out, ge. Still, it isn't hard to pigeon-hole these efforts. For the group's brick-and-mortar companies, it's all about that cliché-e-nablement. For the others, including new companies like Tata Internet as well as existing companies operating in infotech space, the mantra is tapping business opportunities that have emerged, directly and indirectly, from the Net.

In a form of reverse mentoring, Group Tata's tech companies have taken on the responsibility of guiding other companies through the chaos that is the internet. Infotech consulting hot-house tcs provides technology services to other group companies. Details S. Ramadorai, 57, Managing Director, TCS: ''TCS is playing the role of systems integrator or consultant.'' Tata Technologies helps group companies use the Net to their advantage across their business processes. Tata Interactive and Tata Net take care of things like hosting and building b2b fronts. And the infrastructure these companies need to build, is the domain of the Tata Energy Companies (TEC). As Kishore Chaukar, 51, Managing Director, Tata Industries, puts it: ''The skills are resident in various group companies. Why look elsewhere?''

The Net & I: or, there's more to e-biz than e-commerce

Like the country, Group Tata follows a federal governance system. Thus, to borrow a few terms from the Indian constitution, there are central subjects (issues on which the geo calls the shots), state subjects (those on which the businesses do), and concurrent subjects. Increasing profitability and fostering entrepreneurship, for instance, are the responsibilities of the businesses. So too is integrating the Net into business processes.

Thus, Tata Steel has built a steel market space in association with public sector behemoth sail and launched Tata Ryerson Steel Service Centres (a JV with Ryerso