NEW DELHI, INDIA, June 29, 2006: Spent a fortune on a flashy new Web site but still no one visits it? Firms in India are now turning to the ancient philosophies of vaastu shastra and Chinese feng shui, in a bid to boost their businesses. Believers in vaastu shastra say the Indian science, which seeks to create harmony between nature’s five elements – earth, fire, water, air and space can be directly applied to the Web, just as it is to home design. “Each Web site also has five elements and these need to be in balance with one another,” says Dr. Smita Narang, author of Web Vaastu, a new book that marries vaastu laws with the Internet. “Earth is the layout, fire is the color, air is the HTML, space is name of the Web site, and water is the font and graphics,” says Narang, adding that each must be chosen carefully and strike a balance with the other. Narang, a vaastu expert, says a Web site that is not designed according to vaastu rules will have few hits and will negatively affect the business. But how does this apply to your Web site? Experts say using a combination of astrology and numerology, the ancient sciences will help you choose the right colors, font, placement of graphics and navigation bar to make the perfect Web site. Brijesh Agarwal of Indiamart, a company offering business solutions says he has had mixed results on the five sites that his company has designed according to vaastu principles. “We have found that on three sites the number of hits has increased by 60 percent but the other two sites have not been affected,” said Agarwal. “I can’t say for definite that the positive results are due to vaastu or due to increased marketing, but I hope that vaastu has helped,” he adds.
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