One-stop Information Shop

Information is money. That's the mantra India Inc. is waking up to. If collecting and collating business-related information, generated i...

Information is money. That8217;s the mantra India Inc. is waking up to. If collecting and collating business-related information, generated in India and abroad, seems unmanageable, there8217;s one place you can turn to. National Centre for Trade Information NCTI 8212; a joint venture of India Trade Promotion Organisation and National Information Centre, set up under the aegis of Ministry of Commerce, is your one-stop information shop. A place where you can find out how much textile or steel was exported from India in a particular period, or just how much oil was imported.

8220;You can get data for comparative analysis of the export of your company vis-a-vis competitors even in other countries,8221; says Anil K. Singh, Executive Director, NCTI. 8220;Businesses can buy any information vital to the their decision making.8221;

It is one of the 150 trade points spread over 110 countries, set up under UNCTAD, that maintain a local database and receive information from other trade points, disseminating it further to various members. Nearly 8 million companies can access NCTI8217;s database. As a matter of fact, it has a network 8212; Global Trade Point Network GTPNet the second largest , next only to Internet.

All you have to do is enrol as a member. For ordinary membership one to three years, a company pays a one-time registration fee of Rs 1,000. The registration fee for institutional membership is Rs one lakh. This gets a floppy containing approximately 500 Electronic Trading Opportunities every week. Detailed profile of member companies are uploaded on the GTPNet to publicise their interests globally.

The body also offers selective dissemination of information services. One unit of information containing up to 10 specific inquiries is forwarded every week. It includes information regarding UN projects, procurement notices and information on close-ups and surpluses. The registration fee is Rs 1,000.

The Ministry of Commerce has also designated NCTI as the nodal point for the Trade Research amp; Analysis System TRAINS, wherein UNCTAD sends five-year product and country-wise statistics of the entire world here. This enables it to handle trade inquiries on specific products and countries.

In the next financial, NCTI plans to offer its entire database over the Net, which members can access by subscribing to the NCTI site. It already has a home page, nctiindia.com, that offers the basic information. It has also brought out an Overseas Importers CD-ROM from the database developed from direct responses, which has product, company, and country-wise search options. The CD-ROM is priced at Rs 1,450.