NRIs click on home base with sea of offers

RUN A search for ``cash-rich market'', case insensitive and in quotes. You should get `NRIs in the US', `NRIs in the Gulf', `NRIs in Australia', and NRIs everywhere.

Indians abroad are everywhere, forget the jokes about their serving `chaya' or running a dhaba on the moon. But there is again a grain of truth here. The much coveted status of NRIs nowadays includes a whole lot of IT-enabled Chennaiites, who are stretching India's expanded boundary like never before, and mapping a virtual territory the world over. Which means, a `virtually' expanding market.

Everyone is doing it, but IT savvy Indians seem to have found just the thing to stretch boundaries, without creating border disputes with neighbours.

NRIs don't snap the umbilical cord. They still think India (in our case, Chennai). ``Like a bride staying with her in-laws. She's thinking about home (her parents and old family) all the time,'' said Mr.N.Elangovan, joint commissioner of Police (North), Greater Chennai, at a website launch last week. Tell that to a businessman and he formulates: NRI thinking about home = Big market, Bigger Money. Then he launches a website.

What a blessing the Internet is, a medium sans boundaries that can sell your wares across the seas. Wares that might include chilly powder or raw emotions.

For them, all the talk means only one thing: There's a market waiting, wanting, to be explored, exploited, call it whatever you want, but there's a market and a rich one at that.

Take a look at the Chennai-based websites. In most of their launch briefings, they said NRIs would give them the most clicks. The newsites help them keep in touch with ``their city'', as emails with their people.

But one website that was launched in Chennai on Friday has an interesting twist that will be its USP. Thanksindia.com saw a givers' market, where NRIs want to give back to their City.

The website's a service - let's not call it charity - that lists organisations working with the needy and gives information on them. Anyone who has a contribution to make has just to click and a safe-mode money transaction mechanism will see their money through to an agency of her choice. Thanksindia will update them on how their money is being used.

It's not charity. The NRIs are just buying some food for their souls. Check out similar sites like Tamilnadufoundation.org, Icicicommunities.org, Sify's donation section, or Jayahey.com.

There was another website launched the same day in Chennai, this time on a reverse platform: From Indians to NRIs. As executives of Vivahamonline.com said, it is for your ``relatives unable to visit India.''

NRI friends and relatives who have to miss out on family functions can just log on to Vivahamonline, which uses hi-tech coding to take the festival to them. It could be a birthday or any ceremony, but the keyword is weddings. You can stream edited videos online at nominal cost, post photos free and a lot more. There is password protection for privacy.And they also offer to replace your traditional video and photographers at the functions. If your place has an Internet connection, the programme can even be webcast online.

NRIs have never been better connected. Thank Bollywood, they started the trend.

BTW, our searches didn't give NRIs, but blame that on the search editors.

By Feroze Ahmed

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