[Jason]

Quote

NEW DELHI (India) (AFP) - India has unveiled plans to produce a laptop computer costing just 10 dollars in a bid to improve the skills of millions of students across the country.

The laptops will be mass-produced as part of a government-sponsored education scheme launched on Tuesday in the southern city of Tirupati.

Details about the computer remained scarce, but Higher Education Secretary R.P. Agrawal said last week that it would be available within six months.

"Once the testing is over, the computers will be made available on commercial basis," he told the Press Trust of India news agency.

"Its cost will be 10 US dollars. If the parents want to gift something to their kids, they can easily purchase this item."

The laptop will reportedly have a two gigabyte memory and wireless Internet capability, but officials have not publicly demonstrated a prototype -- or yet explained how it can be produced at such a low cost.

The government has earmarked more than 46 billion rupees (939 million dollars) to develop the low-power gadget to work in rural areas with unreliable power supply and poor Internet connectivity.

The planned laptop is part of a push to increase the number of students in higher education and give them the technological skills needed to further boost India's economic growth.

New Delhi rebuffed a previous attempt to bring cheap laptops to India, led by MIT computer scientist Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child programme.

The government cited hidden costs for its rejection of that computer, which was dubbed the 100-dollar laptop.

Quoted article

[Cyber Lord]

Intel Pentium 133Mhz inside

[Jason]

Cyber lord, on Feb 3 2009, 06:16 PM, said:

Intel Pentium 133Mhz inside

Yeah, accompanied by a screen resembling "Lite-Brite"

[Andy]

I think its good actually, and it is government-sponsored also which is quite surprising.

[Tarakan]

I want one. Just for kicks.
Although, I think it has to be something revolutionary, like in The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest
A good movie. Unreal, though..

[iiZESBiE]

i think its a great idea, but i doubt the manufacturing cos would be $10 as its goverment sponsored most of the cost will be from the goverment. but if i had the chance to buy one i definately would! battery life would be a few days hopfully!

[Alb]

Why not. Other countries should do the same.

[Vantec]

Pretty good idea.

[otto]

$10 laptop a ‘laughing stock’
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Tirupati: The hype surrounding the $10 laptop “prototype’’ with 2 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, IITMadras, UGC and MHRD — it wasn’t a patch on the $100 laptop made by MIT.
But netizens were disappointed when it turned out to be just a computing device along with a hard disk with e-books, e-journals through the state-of-the-art “Sakshat’’ portal.

[crazycool]

way to go India!