Govt's much-awaited $10 laptop turns out be a joke

5 Feb 2009, 0054 hrs IST, Neelima Rao, TNN

TIRUPATI: The hype surrounding the $10 laptop ``prototype'' with two GB RAM turned out to be a joke when the department of Human Resources Development announced — during its inauguration in the temple town of Tirupati — that it wasn't a laptop at all but a computing device.

While the world eagerly waited for the launch of the $10 laptop — designed by students of Vellore Institute of Technology, scientists in Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, IIT-Madras, UGC and MHRD — it wasn't a patch on the $100 laptop made by MIT.

The MHRD officials said the price was working out to be $20 but with mass production it was bound to come down to $10 (Rs 500) and thus become affordable for every student in India.

But netizens were disappointed when the ``laptop'' turned out to be nothing more than a computing device along with a hard disk with e-books, e-journals and relevant educative material through the state-art-of-the-art ``Sakshat'' portal.

As the device appeared smaller than the normal laptop with 10-inch length and five-inch width, buzz got around that it was a ``Nano-top'' and not a laptop. But MHRD official brought the curtains down on all the hungama, saying it was just a computing device with 2GB memory.

Joint Secretary, MHRD, N K Sinha said that the device still needs to be fine tuned. But he had no answer to the million dollar question: where was the $10 laptop?

The talk of the ``invention'' had raised expectations of bridging the technological divide between rural and urban India. Talking to TOI, a Professor from Sri Venkateswara University said (on the condition of anonymity), ``How can just a computing device bridge the digital divide and make access to computer literacy affordable to the masses? Where will poor students get computers to jack this gizmo with? Will MHRD provide computers and internet connectivity in rural and remote areas? There is no clarity among the officials themselves,'' he said.

A research scholar from Mahila University said, ``How many students in Tirupati have access to computers? Then, MHRD hasn't given details of the size of the screen, storage, processor, etc. MHRD should first think about the feasibility of such projects before they are launched. The entire world was watching. This act of MHRD has shamed the nation,'' she said.

Rs 500 laptop display on Feb 3

30 Jan 2009, 0341 hrs IST, Akshaya Mukul , TNN

NEW DELHI: A $10 laptop (Rs 500) prototype, with 2 GB RAM capacity, would be on display in Tirupati on February 3 when the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Techology is launched.

The $10 laptop project, first reported in TOI three years ago, has come as an answer to the $100 laptop of MIT's Nicholas Negroponte that he was trying to hardsell to India. The $10 laptop has come out of the drawing board stage due to work put in by students of Vellore Institute of Technology, scientists in Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, IIT-Madras and involvement of PSUs like Semiconductor Complex. "At this stage, the price is working out to be $20 but with mass production it is bound to come down," R P Agarwal, secretary, higher education said.

Apart from questioning the technology of $100 laptops, the main reason for HRD ministry's resistance to Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project was the high and the hidden cost that worked out to be $200..

The mission launch would also see demonstration of e-classroom, virtual laboratory and a better 'Sakshat' portal that was launched more than two years ago. Sources also said that the ministry has entered into an agreement with four publishers — Macmillan, Tata McGraw Hill, Prentice-Hall and Vikas Publishing — to upload their textbooks on 'Sakshat'. Five per cent of these books can be accessed free.

The mission, with an 11th plan outlay of Rs 4,612 crore, is aimed at making a serious intervention in enhancing the Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education. The mission has two major components. One, content generation through its portal 'Sakshat', and two, building connectivity along with providing access devices for institutions and learners.

In this context, government would give Rs 2.5 lakh per institution for 10 Kbps connection and subsidise 25% of costs for private and state government colleges.

The mission would seek to extend computer infrastructure and connectivity to over 18,000 colleges in the country, including each department of nearly 400 universities and institutions of national importance. The mission would focus on appropriate e-learning procedures, providing facility of performing experiments through virtual laboratories, online testing and certification, online availability of teachers to guide and mentor learners, and utilization of EduSat and DTH.