This is why young India thinks differently

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The Delhi-based company has not only lined up a host of products - with its Me Topper and Junior Topper computers - for children, it also plans to set up a kids-only business unit focusing on the three to 12-years age group.

Realising the potential of the fast-evolving sector, HCL also plans to launch touchscreen educational computers in various form factors.

Sample this: Almost 86 per cent of youngsters in metros access internet from home, 65 per cent say internet is their preferred pastime and about 85 per cent youth frequent social networking sites.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) polled over 10,000 school-going children between 12 and 18 years in 11 cities across India during 2009-10 - as part of its Web 2.0 Generation survey - to understand the emerging trends.

"We have created special education content for children between three and 12 years to maximise learning through fun," said George Paul, executive vice-president, HCL Infosystems.

Echoing similar sentiments, while IT majors like Intel, Microsoft and IBM are working with the age group, new-age technology firms like Google, Zapak and Indiagames are also getting involved.

Gaming portals like Zapak realised the benefits of being associated with young minds almost three years ago when it launched an online gaming platform called Paddle Pop Gaming League. With over 700,000 children in between 8 and 14 years participating in the gaming championship last month, brand Zapak has established its presence among the kids.

Experts said an early involvement of children with technology will only help in creating a future market for these firms. Nearly half of India's population is under 20 years, numbering over 459 million - more than the American population.

This year, 100,000 children participated in Google's recently-concluded Doodle4Google competition - introduced in 2009 - from across the nation from just 4,500 last year.

Nikhil Rungta, country marketing manager, Google India said: "We've been doing exciting doodles simply because we want to have fun more often with our pages and doodles are one way we could achieve that while giving our users something enjoyable when they visit our homepage."

A marketing expert said targeting the younger generation in their formative years will also help in creating brand awareness. "There are two benefits: one is the immediate impact. This might be relevant for creating brand awareness or increasing the use of technology. The second and long-term gain is to help create a generation that is more technology savvy."

For Rahul Bedi, director-corporate affairs, Intel South Asia, it is not a brand-building exercise. Intel for the past 11 years has been involved with the Indian education system.

Intel has programmes like Intel Teach, Intel Learn, Higher Education Programme and IRIS (Initiative in research and innovation in science), among others to cater to the needs of the student community in the country.

Over 20,000 students and 1,500 faculty, across 300 institutes, are part of Intel's Higher Education programme. The technology major has joined hands with the Department of Science and Technology and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to jointly promote inventions and innovations among students and the youth through IRIS.

IRIS 2010 had more than 1,300 research entries. Eight of these projects have been selected to represent India at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) 2011 at Los Angeles, California.

"For us these initiatives are part of our strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda. It is about how we do our business. Does this mean that this should impact our topline or sales figures? The answer is no. The idea is to show what technology and tech intervention can do. And use those as proof points and work with the government to bring about these changes," said Bedi.

So far Intel has trained 12,50,000 teachers in government schools. After 11 years, Intel is now focusing on the rural market in India. "For us the outcome is very important. So after some time we interact with school principals and see if there was any change in the teacher's way of teaching." he said.

To make technology available beyond metros, the government and private technology companies are working on a host of initiatives.

About 100 million Indian children are expected to have access to one of the world's most advanced electronic notepads - made available by a consortium of Singapore's Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Houston's Rice University and an Indian nonprofit organisation, Villages for Development and Learning Foundation (ViDAL).

Rice University professor Krishna Palem is leading the effort on three continents to create a low-cost, electronic version of the hand-held slates. Palem's brainchild - a device dubbed the I-slate - is taking shape at the Institute of Sustainable and Applied Infodynamics (ISAID) at NTU.

The first model of the I-slate was introduced at Hyderabad school in August. "Children in Indian village schools are just like their peers anywhere in the world: eager to learn, tech savvy, and willing to try new pedagogical tools that engage their creative minds," said Rajeswari Pingali, president, ViDAL.

Microsoft is not far behind. Karan Bajwa, general manager (public sector), Microsoft India, said: "Microsoft researchers in India developed a technology that would allow multiple mice to be connected to one PC, transforming the power and impact of one machine. This paradigm was called MultiPoint, and it is today being implemented in schools across the world."

But as Paul rightly said, "For now, the focus is to be able to deliver these educational computers and content at an affordable price so that parents are comfortable in buying these for their children."