"It's a woman," Khosla said of his 20-year-old New Delhi-based establishment. "It's caring and nurturing and tries to take care of the needs of real people." Development Alternatives, of which Khosla is president, "is probably the first organization in the world with the mission of sustainable development," he said.

The organization's central objective is to promote jobs and create "sustainable livelihoods" in India-the 'sustainable' part indicates "a regeneration of the environment" and a way to "protect its resources," Khosla said. DA's revolutionary and seemingly ironic way of reaching out to the impoverished, rural communities of India-the majority of which lack basic electricity-is through advanced technology.

"Development Alternatives designs products that have to be simple and accessible to the poorest poor," he said. He considers DA to be "one of the world's top think tanks." To address India's power shortage problem, for example, the company set up small power stations around the country, which could harness various types of power.

"One station takes weeds, converts them through a 'gasifier' which burns the weeds at 1,000 degrees, puts them through a diesel engine and creates energy," he said. The venture establishes about 15 jobs but, more importantly, said Khosla, sets up possibilities for dozens of other small industries, such as domestic lighting and plumbing.

The company's latest (and perhaps most radical) attempt to improve the livelihood of Indians is to provide villagers with access to the Worldwide Web. "The Internet provides all possible services," said Khosla. Development Alternatives has condensed many of them into TARAhaat.com, a Web site which links users to information services, government agencies, e-commerce corporations and health services in 16 Indian languages, he explained. Khosla hopes to establish as many as 50,000 cyber kiosks or TARAkendras across India within the next five years. There are currently 18, which the DA hopes to increase to about 600 by the end of its "pilot phase."

Of course, "like any business," Khosla said, he needs some "front end capital"-roughly $2 to $3 million to start. "We need to demonstrate to future investors that we can make money," he said. As a council member and World Economic Forum (WEF) attendee, Khosla views the gathering as a way to peddle his endeavor to potential investors.

"We are here to demonstrate to people that this [project] is cost effective," he said, calling the impact per dollar of such a venture "phenomenal." The equity capital would also ensure the success of his pilot project and "set an example" for other regions. "Our interest really is to get these things out in other developing countries," he said.

Khosla spends a typical Forum day dining with corporate executives-specifically those in the Internet Technology (IT) industry for whom he's "creating a whole new market"-making presentations and "drinking a lot of coffee." By 9 AM, the DA president has already had two breakfast meetings. The WEF regular actually lectured at the last few annual Forums in Davos, Switzerland, but decided that this year he needs to "work the corridors."

Thus far, the response to Khosla's project has been "awesome," though he makes sure to qualify his statement: "in other words," he said. "we haven't received any money." As a development veteran, Khosla said he anticipates that "it will be a long process" to fund what India's Businessworld magazine calls a "digital revolution." However, Khosla hopes that the implementation of such high technology will accelerate the modernization of rural India.