In an attempt to counter ongoing recession, especially in the urban markets, several IT companies, such as Sun Microsystems, Oracle and Infosys, are looking at IT connectivity and automation in hinterlands and rural markets. According to these vendors, "These areas are turning out be more profitable than urban areas."

Anil Valluri, Vice President and Managing Director, India GEM, Sun Microsystems, said, "It is essential to tap rural markets with technology at this point of time. We are working closely with bank and government to provide an IT infrastructure in rural areas. We are educating our partners on open source applications like Solaris and MySQL. Also, we see 15-20 percent revenues coming form government and rural areas."

To cite an example, Punjab National Bank (PNB) through its technology partners like Oracle Database, Sun Infrastructure and Finacle Universal Banking Solution from Infosys has achieved impressive core banking implementation (CNB), and it offers banking services through its 4604 branches including 249 extension counters.
 
According to KC Chakrabarty, CMD, Punjab National Bank, "It's a peak time for IT companies and banks to diversify into rural India, which is least affected with global meltdown. The vast majority of our population in villages is still denied access to banking, and the technology driven financial inclusion initiative will bride the gap."