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 India is today one of the six fastest growing economies of the world. The business and regulatory environment is evolving and moving towards constant improvement. A highly talented, skilled and English-speaking human resource base forms its backbone. The Indian economy has transformed into a vibrant, rapidly growing consumer market, comprising over 300 million strong middle class with increasing purchasing power. India provides a large market for consumer goods on the one hand and imports capital goods and technology to modernize its manufacturing base on the other. Despite these positive indicators, when it comes to food security, nutrition, bio-energy, environment and livelihood for rural India; India still suffers from substantial poverty. The Planning Commission has estimated that 27.5% of the population was living below the poverty line in 2004–2005, down from 51.3% in 1977–1978, and 36% in 1993-1994[1]. The source for this was the 61st round of the National Sample Survey (NSS) and the criterion used was monthly per capita consumption expenditure below Rs.356.35 for rural areas and Rs.538.60 for urban areas. 75% of the poor are in rural areas with most of them comprising daily wagers, self-employed households and landless labourers . The digital revolution has irrevocably changed the way human beings function – everything from how we live, work and play. However, the fruits of the digital age benefit only a tiny percentage of the world population. With the ever-widening gulf between knowledge and ignorance, the development gap between the rich and the poor among and within countries has also increased. In such a context, improvement in the standard of living could be attained to an extent by disseminating basic knowledge in the field of hygiene, nutrition, health care, appropriate technology, work organization and a few other fields. Information and communication technologies are new age tools that can diminish distances and eradicate isolation, speed up developmental processes and enhance the overall quality of life. A knowledge centre is a model for providing such tools to under-served and marginalised communities in order to help them access relevant information and opportunities to better their quality of life. A knowledge centre has many functions and one of the main ones is to provide ‘information services’ to the groups it serves. In order to provide such services, the knowledge centre coordinator has to become an ‘info-mediary’ or a medium to pass on relevant information to communities as well as be a conduit to pass information about communities and their practices to the world at large. Some arguments that are extended to establish the need for closing the digital divide that NF endorses are as follows:
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