When the earthquake struck Gujarat in January 2001, we moved swiftly as a company to re-establish our Internet backbone connectivity in the state. We achieved this within hours, realizing that there were two areas where Sify could contribute effectively: One, as a bridge between the people of Gujarat and their relatives in India and abroad through e-mail; two, using the reach and visibility of our portal Sify.com to issue an appeal for voluntary financial assistance from users in India and abroad.

We began by asking people anxious about the welfare of their friends and relatives to contact Sify.com on e-mail. Within hours, Sify was deluged with thousands of inquiries as the media kindly let this be known in print and electronically.

We had these email messages printed out and physically delivered to the affected people in relief camps in different parts of Gujarat, took down their responses, returned to Ahmedabad, and emailed them back. In this way, we were able to help thousands of people who could otherwise not reach their relatives, to do so, and to find out their status.

We also put in place a mechanism by which the contributions received from users in response to the appeal on Sify.com was speedily passed on to the Indian Red Cross society (IRCS) at New Delhi for relief work in Gujarat. Their response, both from India and abroad, was truly overwhelming.

We raised a sum of Rs 22.79 Lakhs, from people who had deep sympathy and a feeling of kinship for the people of the state. This was about fifty percent of the total money raised by the Red Cross for Gujarat.