Hewlett-Packard (Hp) I-Community at Kuppam in India: Social Investment Through e-Inclusion

Hewlett-Packard (HP) is a leading provider of products, services and solutions in the information technology industry. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, the company generated revenues of USD 85.2 billion for the year ending July 31, 2005. The company provided infrastructure services, business and home computing services, and imaging and printing services. HP was known as a company which cared for its employees, community and environment. The company was included in a number of sustainability indices.³ HP was the leading technology hardware and equipment company on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI)⁴ 2004. It was also listed on FTSE4Good US Index, FTSE4Good⁵ Global Index, FTSE4Good UK Index and FTSE4Good Europe Index.

HP has been involved in philanthropic activities throughout its history. In the early 2000s, the company decided to link part of its philanthropic activities to its business areas. In 2002, HP came out with an initiative called 'e-inclusion', which was intended to bridge the digital divide by providing increasing number of people across the globe access to information and communication technology (ICT). The e-inclusion efforts of HP are spread across the globe. One of the e-inclusion projects of HP is the i-community project at Kuppam constituency in Chittoor district of the state of Andhra Pradesh (AP), in India. The Kuppam project helped HP to build new markets, an objective envisaged as part of the Restructuring Plan formulated by HP in 1999.