This piece is a must read. Here's the lead,

An Indian physicist puts a PC with a high speed internet connection in a wall in the slums and watches what happens. Based on the results, he talks about issues of digital divide, computer education and kids, the dynamics of the third world getting online.

It looks like this piece came out in 2000, so it's not new, but it is a serious "mythbuster" about what it means to be "computer literate." This experiment didn't end after this writing. Hole-in-the-wall education is still going on. There was a PBS Frontline episode about it a couple of years ago.

One of the most interesting articles on all of Wikipedia (for the controversy and scope) is called India as an Emerging Superpower. (There similar articles for both China and the European Union.)