In a bid to improve education in India, the government has developed a new low cost touch screen tablet computer which it hopes to launch next year.
It will be aimed primarily at students of all ages and will be one of the cheapest in the world at only $35 or £22.70 but they would like to make it cheaper than that in time.
You would expect the tablet to be pretty basic at that price but according to the Indian Express it will be packed with internet browsers, a PDF reader, video conferencing facilities, open office, sci-lab, media player, remote device management capability, multimedia input-output interface option, and a multiple content viewer.
The tablet will run on the open source Linux operating system and the hardware will also be flexible enough to incorporate new components if necessary to suit user requirements. As for the size of the tablet, it is likely to be around 7 inches.
If you are prepared to pay a bit extra then you can also have the option of solar power which will allow the tablet to be used in areas where there is little or no electricity or where the energy supply is unreliable so large geographical areas in India will benefit.
“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,” Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal told reporters at a news conference in New Delhi when the device was unveiled on Thursday.
Sibal also said he hopes to get the price down to around $20 and then eventually to $10 which means that in the future students will be able to own their very own tablet computer for less than £7.
A number of companies are interested in manufacturing the tablet but as yet, no solid deals have been finalised and none of the companies that are currently in the running have been named but apparently one of them was from Taiwan.
The touch screen tablet was developed by the Institute of Technology in India and the Institute of Science and has been dubbed the Sakshat tablet.
“This is part of the national initiative to take forward inclusive education. The solutions for tomorrow will emerge from India,” said Sibal.
Go India.
