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Dear Members,

        We are happy to see the renewed response and progress in the
fund-raising efforts for the India Network Foundation. We thank the members
who have sent in their contributions and those members who wrote to
us personally, sharing similar concerns and hopes for achieving the goals
of this Foundation. This is a reminder to those who have not yet considered
contributing to this effort and a request to new members of this Network.

        India-D/L networks were started in 1988 by Dr K V Rao. The network
has been sponsored by Bowling Green State Univ, Temple Univ, Univ of
Texas at Arlington and Univ of Kentucky in the past many years. In
the near future, some of these sites are planning to discontinue the
BITNET connections and hence, the listserver software won't be available
for India-D/L networks. We need to find alternate methods for distribution
of News Headlines, India-D and INN Digests. One of the goals of the
Foundation is to buy a Sparcstation to meet the resource requirements
of India-D/L networks.

        Secondly, the number of subscribers to India-D/L networks has
crossed the 10,000 mark. On an average, we have between 12 to 13 thousand
subscribers during any seven-day period. The work involved in maintaining
the networks is quite substantial: Other than editing the Digests, the
Editor takes care of subscription and signoff requests, checking the bounced
back mail from the listserver (which usually is in few hundreds, but can
be quite large depending on network/email problems in systems around the
globe) and clean up the Lists to remove invalid email ids.

        The Foundation's goal is to provide a Graduate Assistantship to
a student who would take care of the subscription/signoff requests, and
other daily network chores described above. Most of us have been graduate
students and we do know how tough it is to get assistantships. With
your contribution, you would be helping many students in the future
years.

        Today, the INN Digests carry News reports sent by members who
are doing voluntary service to the India-D/L community. In the future,
the Foundation funds would help us in obtaining News and wire service
reports for the INN Digests.

        In the past week, total number of contributors has gone up from 300
to 500 members. That is still a disappointing percentage for a network of
over 10,000 subscribers. Please consider the need for the funds, and also
consider the fact that you would be helping many students get their
education by the Foundation's Graduate Assistantship in the years ahead.
We request you to send in your contribution for the India Network Foundation
and help us continue the India-D/L service to the community. Minimum
suggested contribution is $10.00

        Contributions can be made by Check, Credit Card, International
Money Order, etc. This gift would also qualify as tax-deductible contribution!
If you wish to remain an anonymous contributor, please let us know.

ATTENTION: TO THOSE WORKING IN CORPORATIONS/ORGANIZATIONS
Our foundation office indicated that BGSU is eligible to receive matching
gifts from a number of Corporations. Please call 419-372 2551 to check
whether your Corporation is in our list and details on how one can go
about requesting matching Gifts. Sometimes, the matching gift is four
times your contribution! So Please take that extra minute to get the details.

CONTRIBUTION BY CHECK:
        Make check payable to : INDIA NETWORK FOUNDATION, BGSU

Mail the check to:
        Dr. K. V. Rao, Department of Sociology, Bowling Green State
University, Bowling Green, OH 43403 USA

CREDIT CARD CONTRIBUTORS:
Please call our foundation office at 419-372 2551 with your information
and mention INDIA NETWORK FOUNDATION. After that send an e-mail to
kvrao@andy.bgsu.edu with the amount of contribution and your name and
address.

INTERNATIONAL MEMBERS:
Please send checks in your local currency and mail them to the above
address. If you don't have check facility, you may use the credit card
or international money order.

        Again, we request you to send your contribution to the India
Network Foundation and help us to continue providing this service to
the community. You would also be helping many students get their education
with the Foundation's Graduate Assistantship in the future years.

Regards,
Uma Ramamurthy
Editor, India-D/L Networks