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This was my essay for crystal gazing organised by Symbiosis institute of international management

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“To dream anything that you want to dream. That's the beauty of the human mind. To do anything that you want to do. That is the strength of the human will. To trust yourself to test your limits. That is the courage to succeed.”

- Bernard Edmonds

The Times of India, the country's biggest-selling English-language newspaper, has adopted a new slogan: India Poised, Our Time is Now.

India's traditional image is overshadowed by strikingly new ones. Today the country is known for call centers and software companies, blotting out older notions of interminable penury or romantic visions of maharajahs.

While jobs are sucked out of Britain and the US to India, the country has gone from begging bowl economy to global giant. But the success of India's hi-tech sector is still to make an impact on the lives of the 360 million people who live on less than Rs 30 a day.

We have millions in our country side who are geniuses hidden from the real world because of lack of opportunities. These people can be bought out to main stream if every corner of India is wired and connected to the world outside.

The smaller cities are increasingly becoming the part of the Internet evolution in India. Smaller cities and towns have shown a whopping 142 per cent per year growth. The poor infrastructure in the rural part of India is the biggest hurdle that is restricting the Internet expansion in India.

The basic need for getting networked and connected would be an electricity connection. Currently at least 56 percent of the 638,365 villages in India are yet to get electric connection but Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde had said that the gap would be bridged by 2012. Another alternative to this is effective utilization of natural energy resource like solar energy or wind energy at remote villages. If we achieve this basic target then I am sure we can mobilize the software companies and NGOs to help in achieving the dream to wire up India.

We can get the MNC to adopt villages with exclusive advertising benefits and also some tax exemptions We can address the issue of the digital divide in India and accelerate our desire to get connected and networked by implementing these initiatives.

1. Broaden language availability for first time PC Users: Offer multilingual operating systems with an option of English.

2. Transform education instruction through ICT based learning: Adopt schools in villages to provide an interactive learning environment that, when combined with in-classroom PC's and projectors, would provide an engaging and transformational learning experience for students in their local language. The intention is to get the young minds involved in computer usage.

3. Ensure affordable access to technology in rural areas:Establish rural kiosks by offering a range of affordable products, services, consultancy, training and support.

4. Offer special package: Get the MNC in collaboration with Government to deliver a broadband and PC package, especially for first time users, at an affordable monthly installment to support India's broadband strategy. This would be in partnership with companies such as BSNL, MTNL, HCL, HP, SBI, ICICI and others.

5. Facilitate adoption of e-government: Government should be transparent and any public details can be achieved at a click of a button. In short the government should be accessible from anywhere and at anytime. We will achieve accountability through such a scheme implementation.

6. Enable local language computing: Here we can target the language barrier and probably within a decade get English into mainstream.

It is just a matter of time before people realize the potential of being connected to the entire world .e are somewhat heading towards this dream, people are realizing the potential of village and also the poor. Most of you may not have heard about Babajob, an Indian start-up aiming to bring the Facebook/MySpace revolution to the world's poor, is just one example of an unanticipated byproduct of the Indian boom: Entrepreneurs and large multinationals are making India a hub of computer innovation targeting the poor.

Citing an example of one of our village Hansdehar it has uploaded itself onto internet giving the outside world a glimpse of life in ruralIndia. The villagers hope the site will put them in touch with the world beyond the flooded rice fields surrounding Hansdehar, located in a rich agricultural belt in the northern state of Haryana.

Just reckon the grand dream is to encourage more of India's 638,365 villages to upload themselves and unite in online networks to advance the cause of rural India, home to a tenth of humanity.

We are not far away from this dream …….. We just need to set this dream as our goal

A goal is a dream with a deadline.And our deadline is 2020.