The Hindu Business Line : Here's e-astro 4 your good health

TIME was when astrologers sat under trees with parrots, predicting when you are slated to have a bad attack of disease. These days they are more tech-savvy, using Net power to diagnose and counsel people on their health, both in India and abroad.

"Astrology has always meant good business on the Net," points out Mr Kamal Singh Bhutoria, Director of the recently launched Astro4Health Pvt Ltd. And it is precisely this trend that the company is set to tap, by using astrological principles to counsel people regarding the bad health patches that they are likely to encounter. While it is not unusual for people to wear rings bearing a particular stone to deal with an ailment, it may be the first time of sorts for people to turn to the Net and have a faceless entity tell them that they are deficient in a particular mineral and need to adopt an alternative therapy to fix this problem.

Mr Bhutoria agrees that credibility would be an issue initially, "but the level of accuracy that our site provides will ensure that the consumer comes back." The site even has a payment gateway with ICICI bank for its online transactions. The site had been launched after about a year of groundwork and initial queries had already started coming in both from India and abroad, he said. However, he was unable to throw more light on the clientele, "as the software makes sure that the person's identity remains confidential, even as his problem is sorted out." The promoters, Mr Bhutoria and Mr Ashok Kumar Sharma, have put in about Rs 1 crore and expect to recover this cost in a year. He was optimistic that the site would be able to sustain itself, through its memberships and counselling.

Meanwhile, the promoters have also floated two other ventures. One of them is trust4Health, which gives consumers the load-down on mainline therapies and alternative medicines for an illness. "If one is not happy with the mainline treatment of an illness, they could check if there is a solution provided by, say unani or homoeopathy," he informs.

But whether the stars will shine for these IT-savvy soothsayers is something that will only unfold with time!

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