For Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, outsourcing begins at home. He has decided to ask Wipro to revamp the ministry's Web site and also host it.

The National Informatics Centre, which hosts the Web sites of all ministries and departments, will no longer host the Web site of the finance ministry.

Ministry officials said soon the Web site would have news about appointments and other relevant details about the North Block, which the public might need to know.

They said Singh had expressed his desire that investors, tax consultants and other people should not need to come to the ministry often, except in exceptional circumstances.

Wipro's mandate will be to make the home page of the finance ministry Web site interactive to ensure that people's queries are answered without meeting the officials in person.

The minister has set up a committee of joint secretaries to finalise the makeover. The move is part of the ministry's emphasis to reduce transaction costs for the public in their interaction with the government.

While the price paid by North Block to Wipro to host and run the Web site is not known, this will be the first major ministry in the Centre to move away from the government-run NIC.

Singh had already gone in for one makeover of the Web site, when he took over. He revamped the Web site from dull yellow-green to more vibrant colours and gave it a newsy format.

The changes are part of Singh's initiative to give a spruced-up look to the ministry by demolishing all unauthorised structures.

He has also made other significant alterations in the ministry by drastically changing the job allocation of senior-level officials.