The warning has been necessitated by the Government of India's less-than-optimal utilisation of the Internet. Most Ministries and some of their departments have their own websites on the Internet that can be accessed through www.nic.in. This would logically lead people around the world to get their information without bothering the babus. But in India, the ways of the Government are nothing if not inscrutable.

As you hit the site of the Ministry of Science and Technology, you are informed that the site was ``last updated in December 1997''. As you progress beyond this point the site listsdetails of the setting up of the Ministry in 1985. Then you have the choice of entering what is known as ``Highlights''. Against a pink backdrop is a list of peremptory announcements of which you can make what you will. Here are a few gems:

*R&D expenditure around 57 million (whether rupees or horses is not specified) during 1993-94.

*About 200,000 S&T Personnel are produced every year (no mention is made of the factory).

*Sixteenth scientific expedition to Antarctica has been sent (no news of its safe return or the purpose of the expedition).

*Surface-to-surface missile, Prithvi, has been developed.

But none of this is surprising coming as it does from a department that was the last to be computerised.

Parliament too has a site on the World Wide Web but the contents include more information on the President than on debates in the two Houses. It even carries K R Narayanan's interview with N Ram without a word on why it's there at all.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has a site with special emphasison the Department of Official Languages. But the spellings and grammar are abhorrent. A sample: ``To diseteminate information regarding Official Language Policy, this wing publishes a quarterly magazine. T.V./Radio spots are got prepared and relayed/broadcast.''

But then spellings evidently aren't a strong point with the Department of Education either. It contains words such as fields, independence and recipients. The sentence construction is elementary and mostly incorrect. ``There are about 888 thousands educational institutions in the country.'' Then there is the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare site. There is nothing to command attention given the magnitude of the problem. What it gives instead is a series of reader-unfriendly charts on the National Health Policy. At one point, the site says rather honestly that the goals for the Total Fertility Rate for year 2000 are NA (Not Available).

The Department of Youth has a page on financial outlays for various welfare schemes, but has no details ontheir eligibility criteria. A word on `The Activities' of the Department of Youth Affairs and Sports: ``Youth in all ages has been in the vanguard of progress and social change. To channelise the immense energies of youth into constructive work, this department is implementing several programmes to inculcate the values of secularism and national integration, training and upgradation of their skills to open up economic opportunities to them, and to develop leadership qualities in them.'' The NIC defends its role by saying the Informatics Centre can only provide the space and technology to set up these sites, and then, it is up to the respective departments to put out the material. But this is where the gap arises, because the Ministries don't treat the World Wide Web as a medium to create awareness.

Despite repeated reminders from NIC, most Central Government sites, barring a few like the Commerce Ministry, languish with year-old information in poorly worded prose. ``I can only take a horse to the pond, Icannot make it drink the water,'' says Seshagiri.

The Ministry of Personnel and Public Grievances has a page on the Central Bureau of Investigation which lists its lofty aims but gives no information on cases under investigation.