India has come up with the world's cheapest 'laptop', a touch-screen computing device that costs Rs 1500 ($35).
Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal this week unveiled the low-cost computing device that is designed for students, saying his department had started talks with global manufacturers to start mass production.
"We have reached a (developmental) stage that today, the motherboard, its chip, the processing, connectivity, all of them cumulatively cost around $35, including memory, display, everything," he told a news conference.
He said the touchscreen gadget was packed with Internet browers, a PDF reader and video conferencing facilities but its hardware was created with sufficient flexibility to incorporate new components according to user requirement.
Sibal said the Linux-based computing device was expected to be introduced in higher education institutions from 2011, but the aim was to drop the price further to $20 and ultimately to $10.
The device was developed by research teams at India's premier technological institutes, the Indian Institute of Technology and the Indian Institute of Science.
One motherboard was reportedly designed by a student of Vellore Institute of Technology under his B Tech project and was fabricated at IIT Kanpur. The cost had worked out to Rs 2,209.
Thereafter, the processes of customisation helped reduce the price of the computing device.
India spends about three percent of its annual budget on school education and has improved its literacy rates to over 64 percent but studies have shown many students can barely read or write and most state-run schools have inadequate facilities.
src-sify
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment