Ajit Balakrishnan

The Webmaster

While surfing the Internet at Oxford University, adman Ajit Balakrishnan was
truly amazed by the power of the World Wide Web. Though he was working with the
successful advertising agency Rediffusion DY&R he got hooked, and along with
a group of like-minded peers in a smoke-filled café in Dadar, Mumbai in 1995
decided to start a cyber venture called Rediff.com. He had dabbled with IT
earlier, as a director with PSI Data Systems. But Rediff.com, launched before
dotcoms became fashionable and one that survived the later bloodbath, would be
the name that history will remember him for. The first Indian Web company to be
listed on the Nasdaq, Rediff.com is now getting ready for the next leap in the
future with Balakrishnan firmly at the helm.