Always on the lookout

The new portal Jantakhoj.com promises to get you connected to everyone in the country. This can even be creepy at times.

It's kind of creepy if suddenly someone tells you that 'isn't your landlord Chaddhaji', or points out your sister's date of birth. But that's exactly what this new portal, www.jantakhoj.com , empowers you with. With a claim to be India's first and largest people search portal, it is backed by a huge database of over 300 million Indians.

"The sheer size of Indian population makes it difficult to access and search public records for reference," explains Ajit Gupta, founder & chairman, JantaKhoj as being the reason behind such an initiative. The website throws up infinite search results of a particular person, which one can further scale down by specifying the place, occupation and so on.

And though this very extensive nature of the portal is its highlight, it is also a reason for worry for a few. "I was taken aback when my friend asked whether my uncle was in the Defence Services," says Anoop Ray, a software engineer. "But later, I was told about this site, which gave all the information." It provides not only contact details of those who are uploading it, but also relatives and neighbours' listings.

"But every information on the website is verified and removable at the providers wish," assures Tarun Bangari, founder and CEO. "We just want to democratise the background verification process as it promotes greater transparency in society," he adds.

The premium services for individual customers cover background verification of matrimonial candidates, domestic help, drivers and tenants. The services allow the customer to select different applicable checks (address, criminal, education, work experience, driving license, reference) as required.