Indbazaar.com has been launched by the Mumbai-based Ifcon Net Services. The brainchild of 24-year-old Amit Zaveri, the portal provides complete and comprehensive information on anything that could interest the Indian family, which encompasses everything from education, news and travel to recruitment and personal finance. Its menu includes product comparisons, international shopping, information exchange, Web magazines, even a helpline and information on NGOs.

Amit Zaveri, a management student at the NMIMS institute, had been an Internet buff for years. As he surfed, he began to think of how he could create a site that was different from the others. Targeting the Indian family by providing information about products, services and their areas of interest appealed to him. He then set about convincing his father, a financial consultant, of the merits of such a venture. Indbazaar.com is the result of a year and a half of extensive research.

Exec Search, in particular, seems to be his blue-eyed baby. ``India has a number of highly rated educational institutions whose alumni have gone on to prominent positions in Silicon Valley and such major companies,'' he says. ``Many of the world's top companies like McKinsey or US West now have Indians from these schools heading them.'' Recently, Indian management schools have become favourite hunting grounds for worldwide placements in companies such as McKinsey, Unilever, Citibank, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, P&G, Ernst & Young, IBM, Deloitte & Touche and many others.

Exec Search is unique because it is a campus recruitment search engine that directly coordinates with colleges for a complete list of students and their resumes. These are validated by the college placement committees and fitted onto an attribute-based search engine, which would enable recruiters to shortlist candidates as per their requirements in minutes.

Initially concentrated on management schools in India, tie-ups with a majority of the top schools are already in place. The service will soon be extended to engineering and technical schools for recruiting technical personnel. A pilot of the site is already in place with the data from eight management schools available. With the best of students from the top management schools in India, the site also opens up opportunities for global companies to employ Indian talent.

An institution-wise placement service has never been addressed before, says Zaveri. ``It helps save costs, provides convenience and becomes a one-stop shop for the best talent in India,'' he adds. His confidence is bolstered by the fact that IndAsia Fund Advisors, a leading private equity firm, has picked up a 10 per cent stake in Indbazaar.com.