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Few Indian Web sites have been featured in this column, but this has been purely unintentional. For one, there are too many international sites that we need to know about, and most of the Indian sites had little unique content or service to write home about. Add to it the dotcom crash and most of the home-grown sites vanished as suddenly as they had arrived. There is hope for the Indian Web site revolution, going by the handful of sites still standing. This week, we finally do justice to a couple of sites that are by, for and of Indians and which can confidently be called as sites offering valuable content. Both are connected with the world of personal finance; the first one opens a window to the world of stocks and shares, while the second tells you all you need to know about insurance.

www.equitymaster.com

Now that online trading has caught the imagination of the lay Indian, who wants more than just fun and information from the Internet, there are plenty of online brokerages that offer a simple entry into the complex realm of trading in stocks.

These sites go beyond offering a platform for you to speculate on the fortunes of listed companies; they carry information on companies, trends, analysis and the like.

Among the best sites in this category is Equitymaster.com, which scores above the rest in terms of looks, design, layout, quality and accessibility of content, besides providing the essential trading services. I cannot vouch for the quality of trading service offered, but the rest is certainly top-notch.

The site is well-structured. You can find the quote of any stock by just keying in the first few letters of the company, which is accompanied by a graph that plots the progress of the stock over the past year.

You can search stocks by sector (such as IT or Pharma), or get the lowdown on how a stock has fared over the past week, month and year. You can create a ticker of the stocks you regularly track, compare companies, read research reports and get the latest buzz from the IPO scene. In case you are chary about stepping into the active trading, there's always the Mutual Funds section.

www.bimaonline.com

With the insurance sector having been opened up to foreign players, the common man has a wide variety of policies and companies to choose from. So, where do you go to find out which policy is the right choice for you? Bimaonline.com wouldn't be a bad choice, given its wide range of information on policies of all hues.

Users can get all the dope on policies - life, general, health, etc - the premium to be paid, the bonus that will accrue, and so on. There is a separate section called Glossary that familiarises you with insurance terminology. There is also a truckload of news from the insurance scene, besides features such as agent search and rules.

Compiled by C. Ramesh

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