The Simputer is a Linux handheld computer designed in India for poor and even illiterate people, with support for the languages of India, including text-to- speech and voice recognition. It will be extended to all writing systems in Unicode as soon as they become available in Free Software. In addition to its low-cost design, the Simputer is made to be shared using SmartCards for personal storage, thus reducing the cost per user much further. Numerous governments, international organizations, and NGOs are working on development projects using Simputers, including field trials in health, education, microbanking, and e- governance. It is possible now to talk about a plan to wipe out illiteracy and connect every remote village to the Global Village. The presentation will lay out costs, a timetable, and expected results.