For something that was supposed to be the next global gold rush, the Internet sure seems disappointing. True, companies such as America's Netscape Communications Corporation that sells the technology for setting up shop on Internet's World Wide Web, are doing a land-office business and making immense paper fortunes in a bull market dazzled by the Web. But it's damned hard to find any of the prospectors who use those tools actually hitting pay dirt by selling merchandise and information or running advertisements on the Internet.

The horror stories of money-losing Web ventures are everywhere, including high profile fumbles by some of the premier names in media and communications. The biggest losers so far have been US companies, mainly because they plunged in early with money to burn. But players large and small, are now following in Europe and Asia. There're likely to hit red ink as well. Take two US leaders, Time Warner and AT&T. Don Logan, the New York based CEO of Time Inc., last year complained publically that Pathfinder, Time's glitzy Web site, gives new definition to the term 'black hole'. Since then, Pathfinder has gotten new management, a facelift, and a plan to begin charging for some content. Now, Time Warner executives say the site will generate profits ahead of schedule.

Meanwhile, AT&T as part of an overhaul of its Web strategy, ended up killing an ambitious 'Health Site' before even finishing testing. MCI Communications Corporation's Internet shopping mall failed to lure tenants and is shuttered. No wonder the question being asked - ever more nervously by bankers, entrepreneurs, investors and corporate executives is: Can you make money on the Net? The answer is yes, but not a lot of it yet. The number of losers still exceeds the number of money makers by more than 2 to 1. But, it turns out that while corporate giants have been trashing around noisily in cyberspace, showing how not to make money on the Net, the scores of entrepreneurs have been quitely tinkering, creating new business models for retailing, marketing, publishing and advertising that work for them and could perhaps point the way to an Internet payoff. This first wave of profitable companies is proving that electronic commerce can work, that you can sell ads on the Web, and that at least sometime, people will pay for online information. "Companies that are offering a unique business proposition on the Web can and will be successful," says San Francisco analyst Betty Lyter of Montgomery Securities.

One example is American Jazz fan, Jason Olim. Frustrated by skimpy selections in music shops, he came up with the idea of a cyber store that could offer every jazz album made in the US and 20,000 imports. The beauty of it: no brick-and-motar costs and no inventory. Shoppers place their orders with CDnow, which in turn, contacts distributors. Most discs are delivered to the customer's door in 24 hours. Add in advertising revenues, and CDnow expects to hit $6 million in sales in 1997, triple last year's revenue, with 18% operating margins. Says Jason Olim: "We're dancing as fast as we can."
In California, Peter Ellis was nearly wiped out by the deep recession of the early 1990s. He lost $15 million, when he was forced to sell off or close 16 auto dealerships. But, last January, he was back in business on the Net. Auto-By-Tell, his new company, makes money by selling sales leads to auto dealers across America. For a monthly subscription fee of $250 to $1500, dealers get the names of Web surfers who have checked in at Auto-By-Tel and decided to buy at the listed "no-haggle"price. Some 1400 dealers use the system, and at the current growth rate, Ellis says he will return a profit if $6.5 million of revenues this year. "This thing is on fire," he says.
In Silicon Valley, veteran entrepreneurs Jerry Kaplan thinks he has the right formula this time. His previous startup, a maker of handwriting recognition software called Go, went south in early 1994. In July, he launched ONSALE, an on-line computer auction. For a growing audience of computer-savvy consumers, bidding in the twice-weekly sale has become a ritual: part bargain hunting, part entertainment. By August, each auction was bringing a run rate of $45 million. What's more, ONSALE, with 10 to 20% gross profit margins, has been profitable since January.
Olim, Ellis, and Kaplan are not the only "Netpreneurs" who are making it big on the Web. In a June survey of 1100 US Web-based businesses, conducted by market researcher ActiveMedia, 31% claimed to be profitable, with 28% more saying that they will be in the next 12 to 24 months. Those surveyed accounted for $130 million in Web revenues in June alone. And this only reflects the average company on Net rather than the large companies, which are not included.

Sheepish scientists now admit that the first and most famous cloned animal, Dolly, is probably growing old before her time. It is reported that Dolly suffers from arthritis in one of her hind legs. Created from a cell taken from an adult ewe's mammary glands by Ian Wilmut and his team of scientists at the Roslin Institute in Scotland five years ago, Dolly created ripples in frontier biotech research. Hundreds of such cloned animal foetuses created before Dolly were found to be either abnormal or incapable of survival or both. Now, sceptics point out that Dolly's arthritis at so young an age is proof of the untenability of the cloning technique itself. In Dolly's case, they say, the issue at hand is premature ageing in others, however, the consequences could be much more complicated and serious. Anti-cloning activists are quick to point out that the dangers of serious side-effects would be similar in human clones - making the entire technology highly questionable. Dolly's limping back into the limelight has opened up a fresh debate on the pros and cons of using cloning techniques to create new embroys, stem lines and tissues, whether animal or human. "The cloining process still has some problems producing a true copy of donor animals", admits a Japanese scientist based in Tokyo. He also concedes that the animals might indeed develop health problems in the future.

Dolly's creator, however, is optimistic. According to him, only systematic studies could help us overcome all these difficulties as there is no way of knowing whether Dolly's arthritis is due to cloning, or whether it is an unrelated occurrence. Scientists say that it is unusual but not unknown for a five-and-a-half year-old sheep to develop arthritis. "It should keep a lot of us in business for a long time," he says. Dr Wilmut had earlier come out strongly against extending cloning to human embryos, as he felt that the nascent technique ought to be perfected and understood in animals before being extended to humans. Dolly's premature ageing, however, was not entirely unexpected as it was revealed - soon after her birth - that she hand very short telomeres for a newborn. Produced during embryonic development, telomeres are the nubs tgat cap the ends of chromosomes, rather like shoelace ends. As the cells mature and divide with growth, the telomeres crumble, and eventually, when the erosion is complete, the cell dies.

Dolly's shortened telomeres are attributed to the fact that she was made using genetic material taken from a six-year-old ewe, making her technically as old as her 'Mom'. As such, Dolly's ageing should not be taken as a representative example of how cloning technology can go wrong. The case should be treated as a pointer to the complexities involved and could provide guidance for the future. The therapeutic value of cloning to create stem cells and tissues to treat terminally ill patients is too important to be dismissed summarily. An independent assessment of the long-term health of cloned animals worldwide would be a step in the direction towards greater understanding of the effects of the new technology.

Among the several citrus fruits, acid lime is one of the most prolific yielder, and this crop can be profitably grown int he tropical plains and hillslopes with scant water resources. It comes ip well in sandy loam rich in organic residues and endowed with adequate drainage. Good quality grafts are ideal for raising a healthy and productive lime garden. The grafts yield true-to-parent plants of high yielding potential, and are early bearers. They also bear big fruits all through the year. However, the longevity of the graft is less as compared with the trees developed from the seeds, according to experts. Seeds extracted from healthy fruits from proven mother plants will develop into robust plants with longer life. The main field should be thoroughly tilled, and ripe farmyard manure should be incorporated well with the final ploughing and land leveling. Green manuring will also help in increasing the soil's organic matter content and improving the soil structure.

A spacing of 6 m by 6 m is recommended for raising acid lime plantation. Pits of 90 cm by 90 cm are to be dug, and filled with adequate quantities of vermicompost, coirpith compost and small amounts of powered neem cake and bio fertilizers. About 250 plants can be accommodated in a hectar. Regular irrigation is essential in early stages of crop establishment. Drip irrigation, pitcher irrigation and micro-sprinklers have been found to give good results, besides saving considerable quantities of water and energy.

In the initial months after planting, sufficient shade should be provided to protect the tender seedlings and grafts from harsh sun. planting Sesbania (agathi) around the young plants will be effective in ensuring the required shade, besides enriching the soil. Several annual crops such as pulses and vegetables, can be raised as intercrops in the initial years. The plants should be trained to grow vertically by discouraging the lateral shoots and other growths. Regular pruning to get the desired dome-shape should be done when the plants are still young.
The field should be kept free of weed and other unwanted vegetation. Regular manuring should be done twice annually. The nutrients mostly organic in nature, should be incorporated at the base of the plants, and watered immediately.
The plants particularly respond well to liberal application of organic amendments. The micro-nutrient deficiencies will not be noticed in acid lime plantations raised with rich organic nurtients. Plant protection is an important aspect in acid lime cultivation. The plants should be sprayed with cow's urine, vermi-wash and other botanical insecticides to ward off leaf-munching caterpillars and tierh sucking and chewing pests.
Need-based application after monitoring the field for pest incidence will be rewarding. Spraying should be taken up at an interval of ten days, and it will also improve the fruit setting and fruit development. The plant will establish well and start yielding from the second year of planting. Though the fruits can be had all round the year, some major flushes can be harvested in December - January and July - August seasons.
A well nurtured grown-up tree can yield as high as 3000 fruits a year. The profit for the growers depends on the season and prevailing market rate. With an average price of Rs 0.35 a fruit, a farmer can realize about Rs 2.5 lakhs from a hectare of a healthy and well-tended acid lime garden.