The Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has always come up with innovative ideas. At first, it announced the launch of $10 laptops which would have been great for students all over the country who could not afford a higher priced laptop. It was also an effort to compete with the $100 laptop that Nicholas Negroponte had come out with, a deal that the Government had rejected to begin with. Unfortunately, the $10 laptop was a big disappointment as it turned out to be more of an external storage device more than anything else. Earlier this year, the HRD Ministry tied up with Texas Instruments to get 3D education to schools, an initiative that has still to see daylight. But after giving such false hopes, the Ministry has finally come good with the launch of $35 laptops.
How the idea fell into place
This laptop which is to be available to all in 2011, is the result of efforts by the Ministry since some time now. They started talks with corporations only to be turned down. However, professors and experts at IITs all over India showed interrest and these institutes encourages their students to manufacture a low cost mother board. Finally, a student at VIT, Vellore came up with a mother board design, and the PCB of the same was later fabricated in IIT, Kanpur.
Features:
- Internet browsers
- PDF reader
- Open Office
- Touchscreen
- Remote device management capability
- Multimedia input-output interface option
Market?
The main aim of releasing a low cost laptop is to be able to provide laptops to every single student, right from high school. This will be a great boost to the education system in India. The Manipur Government has already announced it will get 75,000 low cost laptops to provide for each student in the state. Other states will most probably follow this trend once this laptop is freely available in the market.
Will it work?
From the configuration and the features, it is not a laptop that you might boast about to your friends, but it is definitely something that will be helpful for children all over the country in terms of internet accessibility and more. One can only wait to test it personally to see how good it is. Will it really come through or will the HRD Ministry disappoint again? What do you think?
That’s basically around 1,700 INR. RAM for desktop computers is more expensive than that. I believe this is indeed an ‘innovative’ idea but sadly, it’s an idea only which won’t convert into something real.
This intiative if implemented well will improve internet penetration in India.
It sounds a little unrealistic. However it would be great if the government decides to get this thing rolling and without any additional hidden costs attached to it. Also issues like connectivity are addressed.
its simply grt n dis wl effect 2 our new generation
i belive vit students can do that