Indian Internet Users Manage Finances (57%), Shop (50%) and Look for Jobs (42%) Online: Ipsos Study

Checking out online for information on products and services that people in India are thinking of buying comes second at 53 percent, half (50%) shop for products online and more than four in ten (42%) have surfed to look for jobs in the last three months.

"Online banking has made things much easier for the people and it saves a lot of time. It has eliminated the hassle of traditional way of banking where one had to stand in the queue and fill up several forms," said Biswarup Banerjee, Head of Marketing Communication, Ipsos in India.

"Most of the banks in India have introduced customer friendly online banking facility with advance security features to protect its customers against cybercrime. The easy registration process for net banking has improved customers access to several banking products, increased customer loyalty, facilitated money transfer to any banks across India and has helped banks to attract new customers. No wonder we notice the increasing popularity of online banking among Indians" added Banerjee.

Banking and keeping track of finances, shopping and searching for jobs are the main tasks of Internet users around the globe. Nearly 60 percent of people in 24 countries used the web to check their bank account and other financial assets in the past 90 days, making it the most popular use of the Internet.

Globally shopping was not too far behind at 48 percent, the Ipsos poll showed, and 41 percent went online in search of a job.

Swedes were the biggest online bankers with 88 percent of adults using e-banking. But it has also caught on in a big way in France, Canada, Australia, Poland, South Africa and Belgium, where about 75 percent of people bank online.

But the Germans and Britons take the top prize for shopping on the web. Seventy-four percent of people in both countries have bought something online in the past three months, followed by 68 percent of Swedes, 65 percent of Americans and 62 percent of South Koreans.

"It is telling that the top four countries are all traditionally developed western countries," said Banerjee. "It's

But about half of online job searchers were under 35 year's old, unmarried and had smaller incomes.

Ipsos interviewed a total of 19,216 adults in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United States.