A face-to-face connect

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: The linkages could be for anything. For Padma Prakash, video conferencing works like an umbilical cord. The small webcam clamped on to her computer at home is her link with her 28-year-old daughter, Priyanka who lives abroad. “Nowadays we sit in front of our new idiot box chatting with her and longing to hold her baby. It’s so overwhelming,” says Gaurav, Prakash’s son. It’s a different matter, however, that Prakash doesn’t even know how to boot her computer. There’s someone to do it for her. What counts is that a certain technology allows her to see what her daughter is cooking in her kitchen, miles away in another country.

Then there are other linkages. You want to hook up to Harvard’s management tuition classes while sitting at home? Video conferencing can get you there. Your family doctor is in Chennai while you are in Delhi? Try video medicine. You’ll get just the right prescription for your ailments. Or for that matter get yourself interviewed in India by a prospective employer in Silicon Valley via video conferencing.

“Today it is corporates that take up the biggest market share in the world of video conferencing. However, this is poised to change with internation-alisation and better ICT standards setting in,” says Rajiev Grover, director, consumer business, PSG, HP India. And he is already working on it. Last year, the company launched a campaign, ‘Connect with Compaq’, with a Compaq notebook coming with a free webcam, mike and phone card. “The campaign was targetted at the youth, who look for handy things, possibly with a video twist. That’s why the concept of a note-book with a webcam clicked,” he adds.