PMO.com is part of the secretariat's efforts to project a techno-savvy Prime Minister and a transparent Government in the new century. PMO.com will be a one-stop site to find out everything you wanted to know about the government but didn't know where to look.

Beginning with the PMO itself, Net surfers will be given a brief history of the office with a virtual visitor's gallery. Surfers can glide into the Prime Minister's room, zoom into the various conference rooms including the cabinet committee room, admire the magnificent frescos on the ceilings and the vast collection of priceless lithographs and contemporary Indian paintings on the walls, then go to the PM's gallery where a visual montage of all past primeministers will be displayed.

Officials have deliberately chosen unassuming photographs from the Press Information Bureau library so as to avoid "ego clashes that is famous among important photographers", as one of them admitted, but have generously given a free hand to cartoonists to choose their best works on all prime ministers. The galaxy covers cartoonists from R K Laxman and Abu Abraham to Sudhir Tailang and The Indian Express' E P Unny. It will also give a layout of the official structure of the PMO, their names, designations, addresses and telephone numbers.

At a click of the mouse, all the schemes and projects undertaken by the Government of India (that is, ministries) will flash on the screen, including annual reports, budgetary provisions and new policies.

On its launch date, PMO.com will be hyperlinked to all other government websites (80 per cent of ministries already have their own sites). It will also link all public sector units (PSUs) on the website.

The special cell in the PMOhandling the site are busy sifting through concept designs presented by at least five major players in the information technology market, including the government-owned National Informatics Centre (NIC). The decision on the final look will be made later this week. "The idea is to showcase the best we have in the country," says an enthusiastic official, "after all, our NRI brothers should know what is happening back home."

The cell will monitor the special public grievance cell set up on the site on a daily basis. "It will be yet another letter box to the Prime Minister," says the official.

And will the Prime Minister log into the chat room daily? "We will hand over all important information on a fortnightly basis to the PM," the official says.