Kolkata, West Bengal -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/23/2010 -- Indian Railways jointly with the Department of Information Technology, Govt. of India started an exhibition train, highlighting various aspects of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, which is going to be hosted in New Delhi. The exhibition train, comprising of 11 coaches will also promote sports and information technology all over the country through the 49 stoppages that it is scheduled to have. The train will cover 20 states in 105 days. The journey commences from 20th June from Delhi and concludes on 2nd October.

Sahaj has taken the opportunity of this excellent initiative to participate in the exhibition and showcase its success in the field of information technology. Sahaj volunteers presented hand outs and booklets were distributed among the visitors at stations like Lucknow (9th July), Subedarganj near Allahabad (11th July), Varanasi (12th-13th July), Patna (14th – 15th July), Gaya (16th July) and Kamakhya (19th – 20th July). Visitors were very keen to know the CSC project and flocked to the CSC to enquire about the various services, etc.

Manish Singh, a B.SC student who visited the exhibition at Lucknow station said "the exhibition was one of its own kinds. It gave vast knowledge on the information technology in the country. As a student, it was especially useful to me since I came to know things I was earlier unaware of."

In total, Srei Sahaj E-Village Ltd. will have volunteers at 15 stations making public aware of the strengths of the CSC project. The stations where Sahaj volunteers would be present includes: Delhi Safdarjung (Delhi Area), Lucknow (UP), Suberdarganj near Allahabad, Varanasi (UP), Patna (Bihar), Gaya (Bihar), Kamakhya (Assam), Mariani (Assam), New Jalpaiguri (West Bengal), Asansol (West Bengal), Kharagpur (West Bengal), Kolkata (West Bengal), Durgapur (West Bengal), Mancheswar (Orissa), Chennai Central (Tamil Nadu), Madurai (Tamil Nadu), Okhala (Delhi Area), Sahibabad (Delhi Area), Patel Nagar (Delhi Area) and Delhi Safdarjung (Delhi Area).

Commenting on the initiative, Major Ashutosh Shrivastava, Chief Marketing Officer, Srei Sahaj said, "Indian Railways has always played a dominant role in promoting sports. By promoting information technology through the Commonwealth Express it has strived to spread awareness to the vast multitude of people who are still not exposed to the opportunities that information technology creates. This is a unique and privileged gift of the Railways to the nation."

The Commonwealth Express is specially designed and painted with the Commonwealth logo and the Indian Railways logo. The train consists of 11 coaches. Out of which five coaches showcases the India's achievements in the field of sports and the laurels won by sportsmen in the country. The remaining six coaches highlight the progress of Information Technology in India. The exhibition train remains open from 10 a.m. to 8.00 p.m.

About Srei Sahaj e-Village Limited
Srei Sahaj e-Village Ltd. is a subsidiary of Srei Infrastructure Finance Ltd. It is a business integrator in the field of IT infrastructure with a focus on rural India. It has 65 offices across 6 states and is emerging as one of the largest implementers of ICT-based projects in India. It has taken up the task of eliminating the undemocratic digital divide between rural and urban India, under the flagship of NeGP of the Government of India. It brings government, business, and services to the rural India through an expanding network of Village Level Franchisee Partners. Srei-Sahaj is set to launch over 28,000 CSCs across the six states of country. More than 20,000 CSCs have already been established, providing a single-window, one stop solution to the citizen's needs, under the Private-Public- Partnership (PPP) arrangement.

The parent company of Sahaj, Srei Infrastructure Finance Limited, is a Holistic Infrastructure Institution, constantly and consistently ideating to deliver innovative solutions in infrastructure space, thus playing a significant role in nation-building for over two decades, both in urban and rural India. Srei's businesses include Infrastructure Equipment Leasing & Finance, Infrastructure Project Finance, Advisory & Development, Insurance Broking, Venture Capital, Capital Market and Sahaj e -Village. Srei has a pan-India presence with a network of 71 offices and has also replicated its business model overseas with three offices in Russia.

Srei is the first Indian infrastructure financing institution to get listed on the London Stock Exchange. Srei Equipment Finance Pvt. Ltd., a joint venture between Srei Infrastructure and BNP Paribas Lease Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of BNP Paribas, is a Srei Group company engaged in Infrastructure Equipment Leasing and Financing Business.

For further information, please contact:

Sumanta Pal
Sr. VP, Strategic Marketing
Srei Sahaj e-Village
Mobile: +91 9910340585
Email: sumanta.pal@sahaj.co.in

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Kolkata, West Bengal -- (SBWIRE) -- 06/28/2010 -- Srei Sahaj e-Village Limited, a subsidiary of Srei Infrastructure Finance Limited, has partnered with Bharat Matrimony, India's leading matrimony solutions provider, today to announce the launch of online matrimonial services for the rural population of India through the 28,000 Common Service Centres (CSCs) that Sahaj is setting up in the states of West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa and Tamil Nadu.

This prestigious partnership is an attempt to provide hassle free matrimonial services to the rural population of India by coupling technology with the tradition of marriage. Although online matchmaking is a common practice in urban India as of today, it has not gained much popularity in the rural belts. The idea is to introduce the prospective eligible singles and their families in rural areas to the benefits of online matchmaking that saves time and gives them access to thousands of enlisted singles simply at the click of a mouse button. In the first instance, the interested villager has to get himself registered by a Village Level Entrepreneur (VLE) on the Sahaj Portal to obtain a unique id and password which he can use to register himself on the Sahaj – Bharat Matrimony home page on the portal. The profile will be created in English.

Commenting on the partnership, Col Basant Sinha, Chief Operating Officer, Srei Sahaj said, "As part of our Community Targeted services, we have launched 'Bharat Matrimony' (BM) services through the Sahaj Portal. This service will enable villagers in rural India to communicate marriage proposals within their community and village to village. On registration, BM does a detailed manual screening of every profile and verifies the profile through telecom with highest level of privacy & security. It has a database of 20 million users. Registration for the villager is free. Moreover, for every registration a VLE earns Rs. 45 plus a commission of 10% on special package. This is an excellent revenue model for VLEs without any mammoth effort."

In order to provide value added service to the villagers, Sahaj BM has especially designed two special, cost effective packages for them: Classic Membership and Classic Super Membership. Sahaj BM Classic Membership comes with a registration fee of Rs. 499 and is valid for 3 months. The user gets access to phone numbers of 10 prospects on the BM site. Alternatively, Sahaj BM Classic Super Membership is valid for 6 months with a price tag of Rs. 999. The user gets access to 25 phone numbers.

Meer Liyakath Ali, a Village Level Entrepreneur of Krishnagiri from Tamil Nadu, says, "Marriage is a sacred institution and arranged marriages have been the tradition in Indian society. Even today majority Indian families arrange the marriage of their children. Online matrimonial service through Sahaj portal fosters this belief and works for perfect match and lifetime bonding."

Laxmi Iyer, residing in a remote village in Tamil Nadu's Krishnagiri district says, "Sahaj's initiative to offer matrimonial services is sure to help millions of rural people. Such services were earlier only the rights of people living in cities, but now we can also enjoy such services. Marriage is a lifetime relationship and rural India is blessed to haves such services. Today a bride can find a bridegroom in another village with ease."

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Kolkata, West Bengal -- (SBWIRE) -- 06/22/2010 -- Chaakri.in, a unique rural employment initiative from Srei Sahaj e-Village, has already placed over 1,200 rural people with the profile of Front Line Sales People / Front Office Managers / Security Guards / Tailors / Fitters / Draughtsmen during very first year of its launch. Chaakri.in is a job portal dedicated solely to the rural population providing sustainable livelihood to the otherwise marginalized unskilled / semi-skilled workers in the villages. Chaakri will create over 70,000 jobs for the rural population in various organisations catering to a varied array of profiles by the end of 2010. Companies like Eureka Forbes, ICICI Pru, Tops Security, Peerless, Aamara Raja, Usha Martin, India Infoline have responded well to this initiative of Srei Sahaj, a subsidiary of Srei Infrastructure Finance Limited. Chaakri is to create sustainable livelihoods for 8,000 Below Poverty Line (BPL) candidates under the auspices of Ministry of Rural Development, Govt. of India in the financial year 2010 – 11.

Once the rural person's profile is uploaded on Chaakri.in, the skill set of the profile is matched with the jobs already sourced by the Chaakri team in the urban areas and gets the villager a job. In the event of the rural person not being immediately employable due to lack of adequate skill set as required by the targeted job, Chaakri, in tandem with the Sahaj Academy, works proactively to upgrade villager's skill set via e-learning format in the village itself and that too at the minimal cost. All this while, his resume remains in Chaakri data base for future references. Further to skill upgradation, the villager may choose either self employment option in his village itself or he may opt for a job search through Chaakri.in. Chaakri has successfully got jobs for these villagers getting them salaries of over Rs. 5,000/- a month.

Chaakri initiative has been taken by Srei Sahaj in six states of Assam, Bihar, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal where Sahaj is setting up over 28,000 Common Service Centers under the Government of India's National e-Governance Plan.

Lauding the initiative taken by Chaakri.in, Col Basant Sinha, Chief Operating Officer, Srei Sahaj, said, "Srei Sahaj is significantly altering the socio economic fabric of Rural India through Chaakri. Unlike other job portals which are essentially static websites, Chaakri goes one step forward and adds value to the whole job seeking experience. The scheme is distinctive from other perceived employment agencies available in the national job market of the country which target mainly the 'white collar' in the urban areas."

To provide employment to the rural population falling Below the Poverty Line (BPL), Chaakri has tied up with the Ministry of Rural Development (MORD), New Delhi and National Institute of Rural Development, Hyderabad who will provide assistance to the Sahaj Academy in helping source and train these BPL youth while Chaakri.in would get them placed in various organisations.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm