M A I N   N E W S

PC out of a piggy bank
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 22
College and University students can soon own their laptop at the cost of just Rs 750. From the next academic session, the government plans to provide all learners of higher education access to the cheapest laptop in the world.

The tiny computing-cum-access device, with all functional features of a personal computer like Internet browsing through a flash plug-in, multi-media content viewer like PDF, Docx, JPEG, and wireless communications for audio and video, was unveiled in the Capital today by Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, who said the private players were interested in manufacturing the device.

Developed by IITs of Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras and Mumbai, the laptop's present cost is $35 (Rs 1,500). The government will provide 50 per cent subsidy to this cost to students across colleges, with the ministry already having initiated research and development with the help of IIT Rajasthan to cut the cost to $20 and finally $10 a piece.

The minister said the government would provide the laptop at Rs 1,500 a piece if 10 lakh buyers were available. "We already have that kind of demand under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan where 20 crore children are being covered. But this laptop will be provided on priority to those in higher education and gradually to all," Sibal said.

Bids from manufacturers have been invited for mass production of the machine. N.K. Sinha, in charge of the National Mission on Education, through the Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT), under which this new innovation has taken place, said any new discovery was not restricted to any category.

"It is meant for all learners. We are also seeking help from global experts to make the device more cost-effective and improve its functionalities further," Sinha told The Tribune.

The new device, with its solar-chargeable batteries, is a marked improvement over the low-cost $ 47 laptop that was unveiled in Tirupati last year, but was found to be utterly unuseful as it lacked all display features. The new machine is a fully-functional display device with all facilities for students like a searchable PDF reader, a tool for unzipping zipped files, a possibility of installing firmware upgradation, media players and a USB port to enable attachment of a keyboard.

The device, however, does not have a hard-disc and runs on Linex, but its makers said it had everything that was required to empower the poorest student in the country. They particularly hailed its solar chargeable batteries which could function even in the remotest villages where electricity distribution is still a problem.