Amid the high-tech boom in India, Rediff.com, the top portal in what is sometimes described as the world's largest democracy, is introducing new services - voice IM, social networking and news services - in a bid to attract not only consumers in India but also a worldwide audience, CNET writes. Rediff, based in Mumbai (Bombay) and listed on the Nasdaq exchange, is attempting to expand its local base of 35 million registered users.

The portal, which is in English, is tailoring its VoIP (voice over internet protocol) IM service to send text messages to mobile phones and offer good-quality calls with connections of 14.4 kbps. The company also has launched a beta of its new India Connexions social networking website, which already has 500,000 testers. And its new Newshound service will be available for beta testing in several weeks; it is expected to cover 700 news sources with news updated every five minutes.

Launched in 1995, Rediff.com offers email in English, Hindi and a score of major regional languages; news, blogs, shopping, radio, information on jobs, movies and sports; and its own matchmaking service. Although most users reside in India, the site has established a growing audience of readers who have recently migrated to North America or Europe.