So, you have decided
to do it yourself - welcome to online background
check. We present here an online guide for conducting
your own background check for business or personal
use on Indian or US subjects.
Anyone can conduct his/her own background checks.
All it takes is the knowledge of where to look for
information you're after and a basic skill for searching
web-based databases. Assuming that you have already
acquired enough searching skill - let us explore
the sources of information.
Source
of Information
Your sources of information are :
- Public Records
These are set of documents maintained by the
government directly through its various arms
(e.g. court records, voter list, land records
etc.)
- Publicly Available Records
These are public records, made available to
public by private organizations (e.g. Telephone
directory, Yellow Pages, Business Directories,
Association Publications, Annual Reports etc.)
- Private Records
These are records collected or compiled by special
organizations like credit rating companies,
research organizations, newspaper offices etc.
Usually, these types of records are not freely
available to general public but can be purchased
for a fee (e.g. Dun and Bradstreet Credit Report).
Background Search in India
Quality of background search depends a great
deal on level of computerization in public records.
In USA, all counties have made available large
amount of public records for Internet access.
Examples of such public records are criminal records,
divorce records, birth, death, and marriage records,
civil litigation files, tax liens etc.
Unlike USA, web-based information counters for
citizens (also called e-governance) is a recent
phenomenon in India. Only few states like Andhra
Pradesh, Karnataka and Delhi have taken initiatives
in this regard.
We have compiled a list of information sources,
that can help you find information on Indian companies
and individuals.
Remember - the list is only an example to show
you the kind of information you can find yourself
using your PC. Take it as your starting point
and keep adding new sources to make it comprehensive.
Public Records
Publicly Available Records
Private Records - FREE
Private Records - PRICED
Friday Corporation
http://www.fridaycorp.com
Provider of business information available in
public (e.g. newspaper articles)
Upcoming notable developments
- 'Bhoomi' project of Karnataka Govt
for computerization of land records
- Drishti - IT enabled rural service
http://www.drishtee.com
USA offers far more comprehensive and powerful public
data system for background check. We shall discuss
it in next issue
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