It took six months for this 29 year old CEO to give up his very lucrative job with Citibank, in New York City, a Fortune 500 company, where he was taking care of strategic analysis for the credit card industry's most successful co-branded credit card, and do something for his country.

Born in Patna and a graduate of the Kirori Mal College, affiliated to the Delhi University, Khan says he had this dream "wherein I wanted to do something very different for my country, not in terms of a portal, but for them to feel proud to own. That's when I thought of an e-rupee."

Once the idea came into Khan's mind, it had to be put on paper to give it shape and credibility, he says. Discussing it with friends across the globe for virtually 18-20 hours a day gave him the confidence finally to initiate the process of implementing it in reality. Khan says, "There were eight of us willing to take the plunge and here we are, trying to hitch the e-rupee engine to the e-mail train.

"It was not an easy decision, throwing up our jobs and relatively settled life in the US to come here and make our dreams come true in the Indian market. All of us have put our own money into the venture. Plus, we got about US$ 200,000 from `angel Investors' of Indian origin in the US."

Khan explains further, "We have launched a unique new concept that brings together the marketplace and the Internet in a way that people can get real value addition effortlessly. We have also introduced the first currency of the electronic world in India-the e-rupee." Online trade was happening in India, says Khan, but nobody was addressing the payments problem. "Everybody in India does not carry a credit card, that's why we thought of introducing the e-rupee."

Khan says he is not aiming to force people to change their lifestyle. According to him, ``Our concept is a simple one. It encourages people to do what they always do-shop, eat out, buy groceries-and earn as they spend. No complicated forms to fill out, no fees to be paid, just a wide range of benefits for doing what they've always done."

How does this concept work? Simple, he says, just log on to NetWala.com and register yourself. The value addition starts right there. As a member, you immediately get an e-rupee account, with 500 e-rupees credited to your account. And within two weeks, you will get a personalised e-rupee card sent to you. "All our members have to do is show their e-rupee card every time they shop at retail outlets that display an `E-Rupee Welcome Here' sign."

NetWala.com has set up an extensive partner network with retail outlets across the country. "We have signed up with everything from clothes to shoes to restaurants and supermarkets-almost 2,000 at present-in just about 45 days. And we hope to add more to the list soon," he says. Currently, NetWala.com has five offices across the country and around 41 people working round the clock to make the concept a success.

"Any time our members shop at one of our partner outlets, they pay as they always do, get special value additions/offers and earn e-rupees that are automatically credited to their e-rupee account at NetWala.com. With the e-rupees credited to their account, they can purchase what they like from an extensive product catalogue at NetWala.com. All the user needsto do is select the item and `pay' for it with the e-rupees in his account! They also end up getting big discounts of 5-20 per cent," explains Khan.

`` We know that this is the first step in building an effective e-commerce model, which is people friendly, virtually risk free, and which will build acceptance for the concept of e-commerce," says Khan.