The twenty years that have just passed have created a revolution more profound than any other in history. Information and communication technologies, the Internet, genetic engineering, robotics, space age materials, nano-technologies – these recent innovations have extraordinary potential to change the lives of people – and transform our nation. If they evolve in a manner to promote the public good, they could well be the first instruments we have had in five thousand years for reducing the gap between the haves and the have-nots of our world. Indeed, they can be the source of a totally new future for billions of people, a future without hunger, disease, deprivation or ignorance.
   
The economic opportunities these technologies can generate will undoubtedly create wealth for those who master them. Left entirely to the forces of the market, however, they will also surely result in aggravating the problems that afflict our planet: increased disparity, complete (and possibly permanent) marginalisation of large numbers of people, alienation and social tension. But the usual alternative to the marketplace, a purely public sector approach will not work either. Subjected to heavy government controls, we can be equally sure to end up with even worse problems – and without the wealth.
   
For these technologies to yield the greatest good for the largest number, a new way is needed. That way depends on strengthening the roles of both sectors – the public and the private. Primarily, it requires the public sector to set up policies and frameworks that support a business environment within which the competitive pressures create a convergence between the interests of making commercial profits converge and the nation’s goals of promoting social equity and environmental quality.
   
The rural economy in India is still virtually untouched by modern technology. It is a classical example of market failure: despite the existence of vast and real human needs, there is little actual demand; although a huge capacity exists to generate products, yet there is no supply.
   
This paradox is doubly intriguing in view of the abundance of disposable income that manifestly exists in rural areas and the range of goods and services that are visible in the national economy and in the media. The Government of India estimates that more than 50% of the national income comes from the countryside.
   
The roots of this market malfunction lie largely in two basic structural defects in the rural economy. In the absence of steady, year-round jobs, the disposable income is concentrated in a relatively small fraction of the population; what little the rest have is highly seasonal – further restricting the effective overall average purchasing power. Such a sub-critical market can neither produce locally nor does it attract distant suppliers. In the absence of efficient infrastructure for transport and communication, information is hard to come by and market options are not clearly or widely known. Even if something is available, somewhere, information on where and when and for how much, is not – in effect making it inaccessible. Without access, even a customer with a desire for something and a willingness to pay for it (i.e., expressing effective demand) has to go without.
  
How can the power of the market place be harnessed to raise the intersection of demand and supply to new levels and to achieve the central goals of sustainable development – eradication of poverty and regeneration of the natural resource base? For the first time, there appears to be a plausible solution: information technology and, particularly, the emerging possibilities offered by the Internet.
   
There is no instrument more effective than the Internet for bringing both jobs and information to the rural economy – and thus setting it to work. This truly transformative technology provides the first and best chance to bootstrap the village economy and leapfrog even the most remote and forgotten communities directly from the 19th century into the 21st.