Hello everyone on Yahoo! India Groups,

I’m Bhumika Anand, the new community manager for Yahoo! India Groups and I’m so thrilled that I get to be a liaison between Yahoo! and what is amongst the oldest communities on Yahoo! India.

I’d really like to take this opportunity to ask you if you have any comments, critiques, or suggestions about India Groups for us? If you do, we really want to hear them! Mail me your ideas on how to improve Yahoo! Groups! My id is groupsindiateam@yahoo.com.

In upcoming blog posts, I’ll also ask for specific feedback. Of course, Yahoo! reserves the right to edit or delete comments and suggestions on this blog. We review comments and posts to make sure they’re relevant and on topic. Please don’t resubmit if your comment doesn’t appear immediately.

To make sure that this community is a safe and encouraging place for everyone, please follow the Yahoo! Groups Guidelines while participating on our blog.

If you have support issues, I would like to remind you to visit Customer Care.

Another great resource you might not know about is Yahoo! India Answers, where we have a category just for Groups. You can post Groups-related questions and get answers within minutes from our passionate Answers community or answer the one I’ve asked this week:
What changes would you like to see on Yahoo! India Groups?

Thank you for your support throughout the past decade. You have remained a faithful and encouraging community. I can promise you this: Positive things are coming our way, and your constructive feedback will be critical in the upcoming months. So don’t hesitate to type away those awesome suggestions.

Bhumika Anand
Community Manager

“The world is filled with a variety of colors and I get to meet all sorts of people through my group” says Mr. Bhaskar Maheshwari, founder and moderator of Jyotish Ganga. He was born and brought up in Mumbai and was curious about stars and destiny right from his teenage days.

Many years ago, he visited some astrologers and found that they could not resolve his problems. So he decided to study astrology and palmistry. He read several books to build his knowledge but astrology remained a mere passion for him for fifteen years. It’s only when his Mantra Guru reprimanded him for wasting time that he started practicing astrology professionally. However, blessings were more important to him than moneymaking. So he created an online group Jyotish Ganga to help people with his astrological knowledge.

The members of the group contribute and share stories of culture and spirituality. The “Files” section of the group has several articles and rare e-books. Mr. Bhaskar gives credit to his group for giving him a sense of belonging and the contentment of helping people. “My group has expanded to a family of five thousand members by God’s grace”.

Thanks,
Diti
Yahoo! Groups India

‘United we grow prosperous’ is the motto of Share Trading group, which started in 2003 to help people understand and discuss the stock market. Mr. Melvin D’Almeida and a group of like-minded people pioneered the group and expanded it to the three-thousand member community that it is today.

Share Trading group was created when a similar group was shut down on account of biased practice. That’s when this group was created to advise investors in a selfless, unbiased manner. Melvin soon found volunteers to moderate the group with the same vision as his, one of them being Mr. Minesh Temkar, a software professional and an earnest moderator of Share Trading group. “We, the moderators, are small investors,” says Minesh, “We never encourage members who try to sell their products or companies to common investors”. Other moderators like Mr. HS Ratti and Mr. Pradip are, what Minesh calls, the two pillars of the group who always guide new investors. The unity of this group is so strong that members readily share investment guidance documents which they receive from paid subscription. Thus, members share knowledge and help other members. They are permitted to post jokes and forwards on weekends and non-trading days. But they never seem to get over the stock market fever. Citing one mail from Mr. HS Ratti, Melvin recalls,

“Kafan na dalo mere chehre pe… Mujhe aadat hai muskurane ki.
Aaj ki raat na dafnao mujhe yaaron, Kal umeed hai market upar jane ki!”

This mutual advisory group has helped many members across the globe. Melvin shares his thoughts on being emotionally attached to the group, “Moderating this group has helped me grow professionally and personally. I will continue to run this group as much as possible without bias and prejudice.”

If you want to share an interesting story of your Yahoo! Group, please mail it to us at groups@yahoo-inc.com. Stay tuned for our next coverage.

Thanks,
Diti
Yahoo! Groups India

During the Victorian Era, British coffee houses called Cafés were famous for their “University wits” and scholars who would gather around to discuss the society and its development, art and culture. So, when Dr. Valentine Gandhi created a group that aimed at issues of socio-economic relevance, he simply called it The Development Café.

A world free of poverty, with equal emphasis and contribution from both men and women is what Dr. Gandhi envisioned when he created the group. “I realized that many people in the social development field were unable to use the power of internet to its fullest,” he says and adds, “So I decided to connect those who have the resources, like jobs and research fellowships, with those who need them.” This open ended system of communication has especially helped out the student community, who throng the group to seek help on thesis and projects they work on. The group offers job postings and knowledge sharing free of cost, which is particularly welcomed by members from developing countries.

This successful group has been listed in the global poverty networks list hosted by the UNDP – International Poverty Centre, under the Internet and Communication Technologies for Development Section. “My group is an extension of my personality as its motto says – Bridging Grassroots with Policy. Yahoo! indeed has been a very useful tool in advancing my group from a bunch of students to the top development professionals and policy makers group across the globe.”

If you want to share an interesting story of your Yahoo! Group, please mail it to us at groups@yahoo-inc.com. Stay tuned for our next coverage.

Thanks,
Diti
Yahoo! Groups India

When Arun Vishwanath, founder and moderator of Trainers Forum Yahoo! Group, started the group little did he know what the future held for him and the group. “Trainers Forum is a platform for all trainers & HR professionals from various industries to share best practices and discuss issues related to training. We have been successful so far and we continue to build on this goodwill,” he says as the group continues to grow at a fast pace.

Arun started the forum as an offline Hospitality Trainers Group. In the very first meeting of the group in 2002, several experienced professionals came charged up to share their knowledge and start training activities. At that point, the members decided to give virtual presence to their group and created Trainers Forum Yahoo! Group. Later they decided to rope in trainers from other industries as well, and it wasn’t long before the online group went from 12 to 5,200 members. “We have made it mandatory for agencies to offer our members 20% discount on public seminars and workshops if they want their message to be posted on our main group, because it gives a value-add to the members.”

“It is quite a challenge running a large group like this, and more importantly of trainers. The number of messages posted per month exceeds 1,000. However, due to strict moderation we have been able to bring in clarity.” Trainers Forum also supports a group called the “Bombay Toastmasters” – which focuses on public speaking and leadership skills. It comes as no surprise that Arun is flooded with hundreds of thank-you mails everyday. “I made a lot of friends en route!” he smiles.

If you want to share an interesting story of your Yahoo! Group, please mail it to us at groups@yahoo-inc.com. Stay tuned for our next coverage.

Thanks,
Diti
Yahoo! Groups India

C and C++ programming languages are the building blocks for most programs running across the globe. Nanda Kishor, owner and moderator of C4Swimmers Yahoo! Group, believes that learning these programming languages is like diving into an ocean. In fact the logo of his group symbolizes a big fish (experts in C) and a small fish (fresher in C) diving into an ocean to discover the pearls – the deep understanding of C and C++.

The group started as a combined study platform and today it has become a major source of learning for many C aspirants. A few years ago, Nanda used to prepare for job interviews with his friends and they used to collect a variety of questions and their answers over e-mails. Soon, he started receiving queries from a lot of friends and acquaintance. So Nanda started a group to create a database of such questions for quick references.

This group activity motivated him to create a website, a single stop resource for everything on C and C++. In the near future, the group aims to provide on-the-job project help for its members. Today, c4Swimmers is 3,400 members strong, comprising of students from MIT, IITs, IISC and employees from almost all the top IT companies.

Want to know about C and C++? Join the C4Swimmers Yahoo! Group today. If you want to share an interesting story of your Yahoo! Group, please mail it to us at groups@yahoo-inc.com. Stay tuned for our next coverage.

Thanks!
Shefali
Yahoo! Groups India Community Manager

“Blood is the most precious gift that you can give to anyone,” believes Dr. Abhishek Nanda, owner and moderator of Yahoo! Group Sanjeevini. He says that every two seconds someone needs blood, which can be arranged as 60% of the population is eligible to donate blood but we always have a crisis as only 5% of the population donates blood. To bridge this gap, he runs the group, spreading awareness about blood donation.

The group maintains a database of people, interested in blood donation, with their blood group and other details. Every week, the members have been able to fulfill 2 requests on an average and the membership is increasing by 3-4 people everyday. The vision is to consolidate local organizations in many small cities under one umbrella of Sanjeevini to create a helpline for blood donation.

Last month, the group organized their first blood donation camp in Goa in association with “HRiday”, the HR club of Goa Institute of Management (GIM). Seventy four students donated their blood at the camp, which was backed by a blood donation awareness campaign.

There is no substitute for human blood. To learn more about blood donation join Sanjeevini now. If you want to share an interesting story of your Yahoo! Group, please mail it to us at groups@yahoo-inc.com. Stay tuned for our next coverage.

Thanks!
Shefali
Yahoo! Groups India Community Manager

Pullamangai is nestled amongst 2000 year old temples near Kumbakonam, the city of temples. The members of Ponniyin Selvan Yahoo! Group paid a visit to this lesser known town when one of the group members, J.Chandrasekaran , observed the dilapidated condition of the temples. Here, at the Pullamangai Shiva temple dating back to the ninth century, he saw the mastery of the Chola artisans in ruin. This moved him to search for groups involved in preserving heritage. His search led him to Temple Cleaners , a Yahoo! Group created by Mr. Rajan Ganesh an IT professional. Since then, Chandrasekaran has been moderating this group, which has grown it from 7 to more than 450 members.

According to him, there are more than 40,000 heritage sites in Tamil Nadu and approximately 250,000 heritage sites in India. More than 200,000 inscriptions remain undiscovered containing valuable information about medicine, archaeology and astrophysics in these temples. The single objective of Temple Cleaners is to work towards saving the ancient heritage.

The group’s members have formed a non-profit organization called Reach Foundation, which helps in rural education and conservation of heritage. The members go to villages that have ancient heritage and educate the villagers about it with the help of volunteers from Archaelogical Survey of India (ASI). Many IT professionals join them on weekends for cleaning the temple as this serves as a great stress buster for them. The founder of Reach Foundation is the famous archaeologist Dr. Satyamurthy who has renovated many temples in India. Gangaikonda Cholapuram temple, Thanjavur temple and Konark temple are just few of the temples that were renovated with his involvement.

Care for ancient Indian heritage? Join the Temple Cleaners now. If you want to share an interesting story of your Yahoo! Group, please mail it to us at groups@yahoo-inc.com. Stay tuned for our next coverage.

Thanks!
Shefali
Yahoo! Groups India Community Manager

Once upon a time, there lived a simple girl who, after completing her graduation, got married and settled down in Mumbai. She spent her time taking care of her family. But destiny had different plans in store. She ended up spearheading a group of over fifteen thousand members from all over the world. This is the story of Mrs. Bilquis – the proud moderator of Dil-Maange-More.

“No dream is too big or small, every dream should be fulfilled,” Bilquis feels. “I wanted to do something different and creative. That’s when my brother, Mr. Asif, showed me how to surf the internet,” she says. “I got on to the web and joined a friendship group belonging to Mr. Mubeen Meo and eventually he convinced me to create a group of our own. However, he moved on, leaving the responsibility of moderating Dil-Maange-More entirely up to me. That’s when Yahoo! Groups became an integral part of my life.”

Dil-Maange-More is a group of friends that surpasses the boundaries of age, location and occupation. Founded in the summer of 2006, the group has been quick to get members – mostly because of the quality of mails. Bilquis ensures that only the best content is sent out in the form of friendship mails, jokes, inspirational quotes and wallpapers to name a few. Other than the mails, there seems to be an elusive, underlying emotion that connects these members and keeps them asking for more!

To know more about the group Dil-Maange-More, join it now. If you want to share an interesting story of your Yahoo! Group, please mail it to us at groups@yahoo-inc.com. Stay tuned for our next coverage.

Thanks,
Diti
Yahoo! Groups India

“They (other HR professionals) told me not to do it! I went ahead and took up the challenge,” says Raghav and adds with a smile, “I formed my Yahoo! Group – HR in India.” The group achieved success within 5 years of its launch by becoming India’s biggest HR Network. With two decades of HR experience in the manufacturing and IT sectors Raghav is a humble, unassuming HR consultant. Formed in September 2001 the group is 12,484 members strong today.

“My members made the group possible, they selflessly provide content without expecting anything in return,” he adds. In fact the group’s uniqueness is its spam-free content, resulting from a rigid screening process that Raghav has put in place. New members answer a questionnaire that ensures their interest is in HR and not in spamming. The group has become a platform to raise industry-related concerns and discuss HR guidelines.

“I can share knowledge, which multiplies,” says Raghav philosophically. The group has plans to approach management colleges in order to get the student community to embrace the HR function. They intend to achieve this by mentoring those who are interested. The group discusses work pressures, decision making, communication skills, etc. The group has met twice, in 2006 and 2007, to discuss HR policies and practices at an annual IT festival in Bangalore. They are currently in the process of studying the HR policies of a software firm, exploring the concept of Return on People (ROP) as opposed to Return on Investment (ROI).

Having put speculations and the nay sayers to rest, HR in India is a strong group, and growing in numbers. And Raghav, the respectful moderator, sees the group expanding by leaps and bounds in the years to come. We wish them the very best.

To know more about the HR community, join the Yahoo! Group HR in India. If you want to share an interesting story of your Yahoo! Group, please send it to us at groups@yahoo-inc.com Stay tuned for our next coverage.

Thanks!
Ganesh
Yahoo! Groups India