THE Complete family newspaper MID-DAY Rs. 1.50 Regd. No. MH/BYW 120 VOL XIV - NO. 269 lifeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bombay, Saturday, May 15, 1993 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . By NEEMA KAMDAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . "An infoscientist will compile a world database of every person on this planet. Mr. Nawal Kumar Roongta wants to do the impossible " . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Even If I die now, I shall take birth again and complete my project. I am so serious and sentimental about it" says Mr. Nawal Kumar Roongta Very soon you realize that this Infoscientist takes few things lightly. "Nothing really happens till you are a stranger. If you don’t meet any person in your life, nothing can take place.’’ Which is why he has hit upon the idea of Internet Global Index.com & Global Citizens Index.com - an outfit that ambitiously aims to provide profiles of all 6000 million people in the world. "The whole thing in life is to get the right person at the right time. And with about 6,000 million people in the world and such a short life how can you contact anybody instantly!?’’ was his dilemma. Inspiration came from an unlikely source. Thirty years back, when he was watching the Film ‘Anand’, he was much affected by the scene where Rajesh Khanna befriends a passing stranger calling him by a dummy name ‘Murarilal’ When Amitabh asks him why he did that, his reply is, ‘Everybody is a transmitter. I reacted to some vibrations emitting from him. It’s a very grand theory. If you conduct a research on it, you will win a Oscar or Noble Prize.’’ This dialogue caught Mr. Roongta fascination and was firmly imprinted on his consciousness. He saw a lot of potential in the idea and was ‘pregnant’ with if for almost three decades’’. However, it was a mere greeting card (‘All your friends were strangers before you met them’’) that acted as a catalyst and he decided to do something big about it. His concept is an improvement on the yellow pages which merely provides an address and a contact number, not individual profiles. ‘Everybody is a unique and distinguished person which may seem to be a simple matter. But for Mr. Roongta, it is a complete product of commercial value.’’ The magnitude of the project does not discourage him. He points to the Encyclopedia Britannica as a successful example. ‘If they can give us detail of all visible & invisible objects in the universe, why can we not have a databank of all the people in the world!? Particularly, when everything is affected by individual. He finds it surprising that while there are compilations of animals, nature, organization, there have been none of people. So, he plans to fill in this gap. ‘We shall introduce two stranger so that they can benefit from each other. Many times people say that they would never have been where they are had it not been for so and so.’’ Meeting the right people then becomes important and providing that missing opportunity is what Internet Global Index.com & Global Citizens Index.com intends to do. Thus they will have all the details of a person_ a photograph, signature, brief profile, his ideas, concepts, philosophies, etc. This will be made available at the press of a button and also in directory form. ‘Everything seems impossible till it actually happens." He tries to convince you. Who would have imagined a test-tube baby two decades ago? Or a fax, or the system of credit cards? But it all happened. ‘Ten years. Later this too will be a fact." He plans to complete it in five years. Though not very clear about how he will manage it, Mr. Roongta plans to rope in multinationals over the globe. These will sponsor Internet Global Index.com & Global Citizens Index.com services by offering it free to their consumers. In the meantime, he is not very sure if he will sell his product outright to a company or venture into it jointly. Reputed companies have shown interest in an affiliation, he claims, AT&T, Sprint, Ameritech, MCI Communications and Prodigy. With the infrastructure of these companies, communication will hardly remain a hurdle. ‘If we did not have the necessary equipment, I would say it is impossible but certainly not in the age of satellite,’’ defends Roongta. He has no mammoth staff to collect the data. But a simple strategy probably even simplistic. Application forms will be sent out along with the sponsor company’s products which will be returned after the consumers have filled it up. Though he does not rule out the possibility of indifferent consumers, he is also optimistic about it. There will be two categories of data available - of ‘active’ and ‘passive’ people. He classifies the former as those who not only want to avail of the facility but are also willing to divulge detail about themselves. On the other hand, passive people would just receive information but not give any. ‘In the research that I conducted six of 10 said they would not want a stranger to come to their office or house but would like to use the databank’’ If T N Seshan can have every voter carry an identification card. This could also be made possible. None of these, however can happen if you remain a stranger, says this man with a keen demeanor who declares at the end of a page: P. S. I breathe stranger, I clothe Stranger.’’ That is ,of course, after he has signed. "Strangely yours"