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Kapil Sibal, India’s Human Resource Development Minister unveiled a low cost computing-cum-access device specially designed for the students. The laptop priced at Rs.1500 ($35) is the cheapest available computing device and the prices are expected to go down after production begins. It is the result of 5 years of work by the experts from IIT Bombay, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Kanpur, IIT Madras and IISC. India will distribute the laptop through educational institutions under ‘National Mission on Education through Information and Technology (NMEICT)’. With wireless internet connectivity being made accessible in rural areas by BSNL and this low cost laptop, students from rural parts of the country would be able to connect to the internet which was a distant dream for them till now. But we would have to wait for the device to be actually distributed to the students before we could comment on its usability any further.
Brief Specification of the device:
Design: Touch Screen, Tablet, Inbuilt key board
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Connectivity: WiFi, USB port
Power: 2-watt
Charging: Conventional, Solar
Features: video-conferencing, multimedia, PDF reader, unzip tool
We will keep our readers updated as we receive more information on the product.
News Source: http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=63417
Image: http://www.hindu.com/2010/07/23/stories/2010072363902000.htm