Says homeindia.com president Mr Sanjay Mehta: "At present, sites such as indiaplaza.com, rediff.com, chaitime.com, among others, involved in gifting services enable flow of gifts into India. Homeindia.com has initiated an exercise of delivering gifts abroad. Indians can now celebrate Diwali by sending gifts to their near and dear ones in the US, UK and Canada."

For the purpose, the company has set up the US operations and is gearing up to set up offices in the UK and Middle East. Adds Mr Mehta: "For somebody residing abroad receiving a personalised gift from someone close back in India is emotionally gratifying."

In order to ensure guarantee for the gift items, the company has also introduced a special packaging system. The packaging cost ranges from Rs 20 to Rs 30. The gifts typically comprise a traditional Diwali thali comprising the idols of Goddess Lakshmi and Lord Ganesha, kumkum rice grains, two hand-painted diyas and an elegant toran to welcome the goddess of wealth, priced at Rs 595. Among sweets, it is rasgollas (1 kg) priced at Rs 695 and gulab jamuns(1 kg) priced at Rs 695. Jewellery items include a delicate rani pearl choker made from genuine pearls priced at Rs 2,000.

Homeindia has tied up with IDBI bank for booking gifts through its various branches and other retail outlets. A consortium of NRIs, led by Meghraj Bank of UK, had picked up a stake in Homeindia in the fag end of 1998, at an investment of US$ 1 million.

Homeindia posted a turnover of $25,000 this rakshabandhan when the Uphaar service was being test-launched, adds homeindia Online Service president Mr Hareesh Tibrewala.

Now, the company plans to offer business-to-business (B2B) initiatives mainly catering to Indian consumers as well as the software and FMCG segment by November-end 2000. At present, the services mainly cater to business-to-consumers (B2C) initiatives.

The company has kicked off an advertising campaign through the television and print media on which it has spent Rs 30 lakh.

For financial year 2000-2001, the company has estimated a turnover of Rs 1 crore, and Rs 20 crore for the subsequent year. omeindia generated revenues of $ 70,000 last year.

However, homeindia is not expecting to rake in huge profits through Uphaar services in the initial phase."The Uphaar services concept is new to Indians. The market will take sometime to pick up," says Mr Mehta.