The good news first

The big news is that blogging is very desi now. The Economic Times and JuxtConsult’s India Online 2006 survey has this surprise for us. A good 86 per cent of the respondents are active blog readers.
Net users, according to the survey, now stands at 25 million. News figures at the bottom of the pile with job search, with a healthy 53 per cent of the respondents (20,000 online, 5,500 households, 21 cities sample) visiting news sites.

According to the ET report, 41 per cent online Indians prefer Indian language websites. The internet shopping market is about 4,000 crores. Two other figures are important: 37 per cent of users are from non-metros, and the other is that 46 per cent users access the Net from cybercafes.

Positives signals, surely.