Internet in India

e-aahuti, e-pooja, e-mandir, e-pundits, e-yajna etc..

Most of these terms have already come into existence and if not, very soon they would.

Rajiv on WatBlog writes about Saranam.com and Pariharam.com.

But as bursting of firecrackers is not really allowed in the western countries and also the lack of religious temples the Indians abroad are making a beeline to the religious web portals like Saranam.com and Pariharam.com for offering prayers which cost prices ranging from $8 to $15. Such religious portals are offering IT-savvy devotees prayer sessions done at temples in India, sending them a DVD of the prayer and offerings like dried flowers or vermillion, blessed by the priest.

Even the the holiest of temples are coming up with their own websites to facilitate booking of prayers online. Meenakshi temple happens to be one of them.
It’s not really limited to this, there’s a society called “Society for the Confluence of Festivals in India” operating out of Noida and runs the following sites:
1. Diwali
2. Durga Pooja
3. Pongal
4. Raksha Bandhan
5. BhaiDooj
7. KarwaChauth

…. and probably many more, think of an Indian Festival and they have a web site for that.

All of the sites are pretty informative and offer details right from history of the festival to celebrations, traditions and gifts. Good source of information equally for Indians and NRIs. A look at google trends for karwa chauth during this time gives a fair idea of the massive number of hits (revenue potential?) these sites get at the time of that particular festivals.

“Online gifting has become a popular phenomenon because it’s so convenient. Rs 29.5 crores worth of gifts were bought Online for the year 2004-2005 with Rs 53 crores expected for the year 2005-6 - IAMAI

“The festival season of 2005, online shopping saw customers spend $25 million on gifts, clothes and household articles”
-Source

Let’s see what are the figures for this year, and how much do the Indians and NRIs spend online this festive season.