If this scenario becomes a reality not only across India but around the globe, it won't be surprising if computing and services giant Hewlett-Packard had something to do with it. And, it is very likely, there will be a rich harvest for the company to reap.

Taking technology to and making it work for the four billion people who have little or no access to it is what World e-Inclusion - the vision of chairman, president and CEO Carly Fiorina of the $50 billion company - is all about. And the fact that it is a huge, virgin market out there that HP is aiming to tap.

What is really interesting is that India is going to play a key role in HP's World e-Inclusion drive with tens of million dollars to go into research and development of concepts and proofs of concept by its dedicated pure research centre called India Research Operation (IRO). With its 700 million rural poor, the country will also serve as a huge lab for testing the products and solutions that will be ultimately `productised' and marketed by the company's partners in the initiative.

HP India research team to help drive technology to masses According to HP India Software Operation (ISO) director for Enterprise Systems and Solutions Centre Subrahmanyam Vempati, who will have oversight of IRO, the pure research team will scale up to a team of around 60 working with experts from various fields to develop solutions that will make a difference to those on the other side of the digital divide. A global search is currently on to find a director to head it.

``We are focusing on basic areas like natural (or local) language support, healthcare, education and agriculture, where the impact will be felt by the target audience,'' Mr Vempaty told The Financial Express. Of course, the eye is also on the bottomline. With the right pricing and positioning taking into account socio-cultural and political aspects, the idea is to turn this huge market into HP consumers.

HP India is in the process of putting together a think-tank of experts from the areas it is targeting to help the research team evolve concepts for this new market. ``It is not about technology, it is about people,'' Mr Vempaty said.

The think-tank will generate ideas based on the experts' experience of problems at the ground level and how technology could be used to provide solutions.

Apart from IRO, HP has two other key pure research centres in Palo Alto, US, and in the UK. While the research teams have separate budgets, HP has targeted $1 billion of HP and partner products and services to be sold, leased or donated through World e-Inclusion programmes over a year since its launch in October.