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Indian Astrology Websites Are All the Rage

29/05/09May 29, 2009

As many Asian countries, India has also been hit by the global recession, with the markets plunging, people losing their jobs and salaries decreasing. On Friday, new data revealed that the economy had grown at a rate of 5.8 percent between the first quarter of last year and the first quarter of this year -- the worst rate in years but still better than expected. In response, the markets rose in the hope the worst might now be over. One industry has been experiencing an unprecedented boom: astrology websites seem to be all the rage!

https://p.dw.com/p/LrsQ
There is a soar in interest in numerology, tarot, vaastu, feng shui and Chinese astrology amid financial crisis
There is a soar in interest in numerology, tarot, vaastu, feng shui and Chinese astrology amid financial crisisImage: ZB - Fotoreport

Since the start of the global recession, the number of questions put by the users of Astroyogi.com about the way their future appears in the stars has shot up by 30 percent.

Most of these internet users work in the computer industry or are business graduates -- there have been a lot of redundancies in recent months. Not surprisingly, 20 percent of the queries revolve around job prospects.

Astroyogi.com was launched in 1999 and houses over 10,000 pages of unique content dealing with all areas of astrology and spirituality, including numerology, tarot, vaastu, feng shui and Chinese astrology.

A million users

The site has a registered user base of a million people and its users are not only from India but also from countries such as the US, UK and Malaysia to name but a few. Meena Kapoor, the CEO of Astroyogi.com, explained why the website is experiencing a surge in user interest.

"It's the young people who are emerging into the work force as they have got used to high salary packages at entry level and suddenly due to recession they are finding it difficult to combat the situation. Job availability has gone down radically. There is a huge pool of qualified people who are now available who were not available before. It is important that employees are not just giving 100 percent output but 200 percent output."

Meena Kapoor is upbeat about her website and astrology: “Astrology cannot combat recession but it can certainly provide guidance to people who want to make career moves. It can help give direction about what their next move should be or what are the wise investments they should make. It is a good guidance tool."

Hopes astrology can help in present financial crisis

At times of disappointment, large numbers of people clearly hope that the movement of the planets will in some way indicate where financial markets are going to go in the future.

Ginni Arora is a tarot card reader and panelist at Astroyogi. In her opinion, astrology can help in the present recession scenario and help people to get on in their careers despite poor prospects.

"It gives guidance and strength to face the problems. It can tell you the correct timings of events and guide in taking other professions as well."

At any rate, this is what Astroyogi claims. Inner strength is of course important to face a crisis but at the end of the day every individual has to decide whether to believe in the power of astrology or not.

Author: Nikki Rattan
Editor: Grahame Lucas