Rediff.com
Indian news and entertainment website
Rediff.com, stylised as rediff.com, is an Indian news, information, entertainment, email service and shopping website. Founded by Ajit Balakrishnan in 1996, it was the first Indian website to become a mainstream news media organisation. It is headquartered in Mumbai with offices in Bengaluru, New Delhi, and New York City.
As of 2009, it had more than 300 employees. At the time of its founding, internet access had only been available in India for five months with a mere 18,000 users, leaving Rediff.com as one of the earliest Indian web portals and email providers.
History
The Rediff.com domain was registered in India in 1996. Early products included the email service Rediffmail and Rediff Shopping, an online marketplace selling electronics and peripherals.
In 2001, Rediff.com was alleged to be in violation of the Securities Act of 1933 for filing a materially false prospectus in relation to an IPO of its American depositary shares. The case was resolved by settlement in 2009.
In April 2001, Rediff.com acquired the India Abroad newspaper.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Rediff.com” is indian news and entertainment website. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Rediff, Indian and news, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “indian news and entertainment website” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q140676. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1996, 2009, 2001 and 1933.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Rediff.com”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Rediff.com primary sources, Rediff.com archive and Rediff research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Rediff.com”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Rediff.com” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.