In case your office forgot to book it, you could also buy an airline ticket to reach Mumbai for the Monday morning meeting. If you have another 10 minutes to spare, the kiosk at the corner of the store could also print the picture of your daughter that you clicked on your mobile phone camera two weeks ago.

Facilities such as these, and more, will be available once the Delhi-based digital company Smile Interactive Technology Group (STIG) rolls out its assisted e-commerce business.

Explaining the concept behind assisted e-commerce, the company chairman, Mahendra Swarup, says that Indians are not very comfortable using the Internet.

Besides, at about 14 million connections, its penetration is still low. "Yet the e-commerce opportunities on the Net are huge. We are in the business of helping consumers making use of e-commerce options," he adds.

As part of its plans for assisted e-commerce, Smile Interactive will put up kiosks - 900 across the country, for a start - inside grocery stores, malls, petrol pumps and other retail points.

Through these kiosks, which will have an Internet connection, the company could offer you music downloads, airline and railway tickets and other products available on the Net.

"You could come to us for music downloads on your mobile or iPod and we'd transfer it for a price through cable or Bluetooth," says Manish Vij, chief business officer, Smile Interactive.

He says the service will be popular with consumers who wish to buy stuff off the Net but are shy of using their credit cards. The company is entering into revenue share tie-ups with e-commerce players for the business.

"We are only aggregators of products and services," says Swarup who is keen to set up 97,000 assisted e-commerce kiosks in the next three years. "We want assisted e-commerce facilities in every neighbourhood," he states.

Besides retail opportunity in the digital world, Smile Interactive is looking at offering healthcare services online.

"The idea is to promote medical tourism. We are aggregating information on hospitals in India and putting it out on the Net. Foreigners can search for information and even book their hospitals and surgeries online," says Swarup.

Interestingly, Swarup, the former Times Internet CEO, bought a 26 per cent stake in Smile Interactive only last year though the company was founded by computer engineers Harish Bahl and CP Singh in 1999.

Known as Smile Studio earlier, it was launched as a complete web solutions company and an incubation centre for entrepreneurs keen to do business in the digital space.

Two of the companies that it incubated - Quasar, the digital marketing and online advertising agency, and Tyroo, the self-serve ads outfit - have already attracted strategic investors.

A couple of weeks ago, Smile Interactive sold 75 per cent stake in Quasar Media to WPP Digital. Three months ago, Yahoo! Inc picked a 35 per cent stake in Tyroo. Though the promoters are not keen to talk numbers, the deals are said to be valued at Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion).

On the cards is a second incubation centre in Gurgaon. Vij claims that the company has a $10 million fund to incubate ideas in the digital space.

CEO Harish Bahl adds that the opportunities in digital media - Internet, mobile - are enormous.  "We are in the incubation business as money is freely available but there is a serious dearth of expertise that can translate ideas into viable businesses," he says.