It has been called several names in the past, smart home, wired home, intelligent home, networked home. For years, we've been told that one day, your personal computer will talk to your refrigerator and order missing groceries. Your telephone may connect to the internet and order a pizza for you before you arrive home. The air-cooler will start to cool your room an hour before you arrive, because you've just messaged it on your way from work on a hot summer day.

Aftek, which has developed a framework called 'Jadoogar', provides a personal application gateway, called 'Digital home gateway'. Aftek is in the process of installing it at a residential scheme in Pune.

'The idea is for a central device to control everything connected to it. The demand is for a media-center like environment', says Humnabadkar. He adds, 'Merely offering bandwidth connectivity into home does not mean an intelligent home. What is required is a complex set of solutions offering features such as WiFi connectivity, controlling lights, wireless television ... the works'.