Jayaraj and his wife is a common face in the sub-urban part of Chennai. The hot idlis and fresh puri’s sold by the couple is quite famous in this area. Street vendor Jayaraj thus earns around Rs.8000 every month from this business, which makes life comfortable for this family. Though he has just completed his high school education, this 34-year-old entrepreneur is not satisfied with this. He aspires to break away from his modest middle class existence.

PCs and especially Internet had always been alluring to him. Having heard about the business opportunities available in this space, he bought himself a PC with access to broadband Internet. Today he searches, chats and even writes emails and hopes to start a small cybercafe soon. Unlike the normal PC, Jayaraj bought his PC at an affordable price of Rs.4500 thanks to Novatium, the company, which came out with what it calls as Nova Net PC and revolutionized the concept of computing.

A computer at nearly one-third of current prices has always been a dream for most Indians. And yet, buyers are not holding their breath for these devices because experience has earlier proved that expectations are seldom met. However, this time around, those propagating low-cost computing solutions have taken a different route.

Nova netPC is designed to make computing simple and economical without compromising on the user experience. Uncompromised computing implies that the users are able to do everything he/she expects out of computer without compromising on performance and features of the applications available. Novatium’s netPC allows the user to work with the desktop of his/her choice - Linux or Windows. The user can use any of his/her preferred applications. The netPC comes without a hard drive. It is a complete desktop with in-built internet access, chat webcam reaching your home just like cable TV service. It costs less than Rs.4500 with monthly rental plans beginning at Rs.400 for a broadband connection.

However Jayaraj is not the only case in point. Today, several thousand homes in India are able to enjoy the luxury of having a computer at an affordable price as low as Rs.4500. This technological vision which was laid out in the labs of IIT Chennai by Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, and taken to market by serial entrepreneur Rajesh Jain and Ray Stata (founder and chairman of Analog Devices) in 2004, Novatium is today not only a forerunner in the low cost computing market but also is redefining the concept of computing to make it available to the next billion people.