Washington residents are embracing the news by flooding the Craigslist Web site with offers to rent their homes and apartments to out-of-towners.

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The effort has proved so successful that Unilever introduced a high-tech element: the Shakti entrepreneurs now run kiosks with personal computers which villagers can rent to send e-mails and browse the web for things that can make a big difference to their lives, like market prices.

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