Yahoo! Inc., the world's leading Web-based media and communications group, on Thursday announced the start of its Indian portal in a market predicted to show one of the fastest growth rates in Internet users.

"We think and hope that we have come here at the right time to participate and contribute to the growth of the market," the company's co-founder Jerry Yang told a news conference.

Yahoo! India is the 23rd world property in Yahoo!'s global network.

Yahoo!'s Indian edition has a directory of 14 categories of Web sites including news, finance, cricket, movies and greetings.

The portal has teamed up with a number of local content providers such as Equitymaster.com, Itspace.com, Hungama.com Indiainfoline.com, financial services firm ICICI Ltd , AFX News, Reuters and Dow Jones Newswires.

"We hope to expand our content partners here very quickly," Yang said.

Yahoo!'s launch comes at a time when industry experts predict an explosive growth in Indian Internet users in a few years time.

Quoting a study by the International Data Corp., Yahoo! said, IDC forecasts Internet users in India to surge to around 11 million by 2003 from estimated users of 1.6 million by the end of 2000.