Debashish Chakrabarty, or ‘Debashishichikurabaruchi’ as the Japanese would like to call him, a Software Consultant based at Pune, has been on the Internet since the “geocities” days but opened his Blogger account in October 2002. His English blog Null Pointer covers Java, Internet, blogging, Indic-blogging and topics that concern India. He also maintains a Hindi blog NuktaChini.

Debashish is had been a DMOZ editor, maintains a portal Chittha Vishwa on Indic Blogging, launched the first desi blog-awards called The Indibloggies and keeps a sharp eye on Indic-blogging. He has also contributed towards localization of softwares such as Wordpress, Gregarious, Pebble, IndicJoomla, IJoomla, Scuttle, Snap Shots, Blog Bar etc. He has also been instrumental in beginning initiatives like Buno Kahani, a group blog where various authors literally weave a story and Anugunj - a web event hosted in turn by Hindi bloggers - where various bloggers write on a given topic. He also contributes to Wikipedia, Sarvagya, a wiki aimed at Hindi bloggers and Shunya. He established and moderates a popular mailing list of Hindi bloggers called Chitthakar. Debashish and also publishes Nirantar, hyped to be the world’s first Hindi blogzine. He is also the initiator and editor of the Hindi Lingua Project of Global Voices Online, a non-profit global citizens’ media project founded at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, a research think-tank focused on the Internet’s impact on society.

My websites:

• Chittha Vishwa: The first ever Hindi blog aggregator with resources such as Blog stats, Blogger Profiles, Trivia and Bookmarks (not updated anymore).
• Bangla Blog Primer : A tutorial in English and Bengali to help you start blogging in your mother tongue in a jiffy.
• Bangla Blogs ~ Blog Directory : World’s first directory of Bangla (Bengali) blogs from world over.
• Hindi Blogs ~ Blog Directory : Directory of Hindi blogs from world over that I co-founded with Raman Kaul.
• Buno Kahani : A group blog where various authors literally weave a story.
• Nirantar : World’s first Hindi blogzine founded and published by Debashish, covers socio-economic issues, literature and technology.
• The Indibloggies : An annual blog-award clique for Indian Blogs. The site “showcases the best of the Indian blogosphere” and awards English as well as indic blogs authored by Indians and the Indian Diaspora.
• Aavaran : Ready Blogger.com templates in Hindi. (not tested with the new Blogger)
• Surkhiyan : Latest headlines from various online Hindi news mediums feeds such as BBC Hindi, Dainik Bhaskar, Navabharat Times, MSN Hindi, Dainik Jagaran, Deutsche Welle etc.
• Podbharti : World’s first Hindi Podzine (Podcast) co-founded with Shashi Singh.

Press mentions:

• Has an Indian blog touched you lately? : Indibloggies finds a mention in this Economic times article. [12 Dec 2005]
• I BLOG, so I am! : Indibloggies gets another mention in Deccan Herald. [15 Jan 2006]
• Shabdanjali: Hindi zine : Interviewed by Anup Shukla, the Hindi blogging doyen, at Shabdanjali magazine (in Hindi).
• Blog Bytes : Quoted in an Asian Age article [12 Mar 2006]
• Battle of the blog : “The Indibloggies Awards…is an idea that clicked for sure” says Anuradha Mane in this Pune city supplement of Indian Express. [Web URL] [10 Feb 2007]
• Blogging Glory : A Brand Reporter Story on the Indibloggies [1 Mar 2007]
• Is there money in them? : A Brand Reporter Story on possibilities of Blog monetization [16 Apr 2007]
• Speaking out : A Dataquest article about blogging in Indian languages. [Web URL] [10 May 2007]
• The Write way to earn : Quoted in a Money Today article [17 May 2007]
• Vernacular bloggers carve a niche on Net : Quoted in an article on Mail Today [9 Feb 2008]

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