US President Barack Obama's three-day India visit may be confined to Mumbai and Delhi, but he got a taste of the country's "rural flavour" during a video-conferencing session with villagers of a tiny hamlet in Rajasthan's Ajmer district today.

"Through this initiative, our idea was to give the US President a flavour of rural India," Minister of State for Communications and Information and Technology Sachin Pilot told PTI after he moderated during a 10-minute interaction between Obama and villagers from Kanpura village, in Ajmer district.

"It (the video conference) was aimed to communicate to him how technology easily blends with the Panchayati Raj system and the concept of Sarpanch (village head) in India," he said.

The initiative was aimed at conveying the message that not only Mumbai and Delhi, but even rural India could benefit from the IT services and digital revolution, he added.

Pilot, who is the Member of Parliament from Ajmer, said total digitisation of records for the village, which is about 25 kilometres away from district headquarters, is underway and a Fibre Optic Cable (FOC) was laid here earlier.

"The Sarpanch and a 28-year-old student were specifically chosen to speak to the US President, as it would not only communicate their achievements and efforts to him, but would also allow Obama to know how Information Technology is changing the face of rural India," Pilot said.

Another ten 'Panchayats' are being connected under the same initiative and local content is being customised under the IT and e-governance plan, he said.

Pilot said that during the interaction, the US President said it is expensive to deliver essential services to sparsely populated areas and logistically remote sections of the population in his country too. However, he noted that technologies like telemedicine can leverage these facilities successfully.

"India may be in a position to leapfrog, avoiding the 20th century, straightaway into the 21st century. I look forward to the day you will be a model for countries around the world," Obama said during the conference.

The President also expressed happiness about the progress being made with the aid of IT. "Here is a good news. In the US, we are trying to do the same thing. Trying to make the government accountable and efficient," Obama said.

Pilot said that after the interaction with the US President, the village will surely find a place on the global map and would gain prominence in the national and international forums related to information and communication.

"The villagers are very happy that their initiative has been recognised at such a large platform. The village will make the best use of it," he said.

The village has a population of about 5,000 people.

After a short introduction by National Knowledge Commission Chairman Sam Pitroda, Obama spoke to the villagers, who shared their experience with the benefits of broadband penetration, such as online medical consultation, education and local e-governance.

A woman villager, Mamta, told the US President that her son was treated for an ailment through telemedicine, thanks to the development in IT services.

A student informed Obama that the life of the villagers has changed because of IT technology and students could now appear online for various exams like CAT and GATE, whereas they earlier had to travel around 25 km to Ajmer to collect and fill forms.

The secretary of the gram panchayat told the US President about how a handpump that had gone faulty could be fixed in no time, as a complaint could be sent to the higher authorities immediately over the Internet.

Pilot told Obama during the interaction that IT was not just about exporting services, but was also about changing the lifestyle of rural India.

India expects to achieve broadband penetration in all panchayats by 2012. Broadband spectrum was auctioned earlier this year and roll-out of networks is currently underway.