$20 Indian Computer

http://www.indianexpress.com/story_print.php?storyid=416687

$10 laptops on anvil for students
Express news service Posted online: Jan 30, 2009 at 2243 hrs
New Delhi : The Human Resource Development Ministry is in the final stages of bringing out a $10- $20 low power device to take the laptop right into the villages and into the hands of practically every student across the country.

The HRD Ministry on Thursday said a prototype for the same has been created and talks are on with manufacturers like Intel to develop the device that will come equipped with wi-fi and LAN facilities, expandable memory, and a variety of other features. The ministry wants to go into the commercial market with the device and the first set of these ultra low cost laptops are expected to roll out by middle of this year.

“The idea is to create a device which is very low powered, so that it can work at 2 watt range even in villages where electricity supply is a problem. Attempts are on to see how a solar-charged or dynamo-powered device can be developed. While the prototype we have developed so far — with the help of students from IIT Madras, IISc Bangalore and Vellore Institute of Technology among others — has brought down the cost to $20, our ambition is to bring it down to $10,” said R P Agarwal, Secretary Higher Education, HRD Ministry.

The device will be available at subsidised price for institutes and students. Over the next six months, the ministry will be testing the prototype and looking at the availability of other related utilities such as repair and servicing shops in villages. The ministry is also in talks with input manufacturers to develop the device. “We are talking to all developers and manufacturers with the condition that cost should stay in the range of $10,” said an official.

“To increase the national gross enrolment ratio to 15 percent in the 11th Five-Year plan, we have to move beyond the conventional classroom system and take it via the ICT to reach remote areas where there are infrastructure problems. We are working out ways to directly beam IIT lectures across institutes, explore the potential of EDUSAT in a big way with some 1,000 educational channels and prepare virtual laboratory programmes so that students can study practicals on video monitors. We will be providing free e-content to students,” Agarwal added.

The ministry had earlier turned down MIT’s Nicholas Negroponte’s one-laptop-per-child (OLPC) offer of a $100 laptop, objecting to the aggressively marketed OLPC plan on a range of issues and reiterating that it was looking at a low cost device in the range of $10.