New Delhi, March 22
India’s best international showpiece - Aakash tablet - is struggling for survival. The Government is rethinking the Aakash (cheapest tablet) project wherein it had promised to offer the Rs 2250 low cost computing device to all higher education students at a subsidy of 50 per cent (Rs 1125).

The first version of Aakash was launched by former HRD Minister Kapil Sibal on October 5, 2011 and an improved version (Aakash 2) on November 12 last by the incumbent MM Pallam Raju.

But the project is no longer feasible with the production falling short of requirement. Its review has been necessitated by repeated failure of Datawind, the Canada-based suppliers of the device, to provide orders to the HRD Ministry. Datawind had signed a contract with IIT Bombay (which is developing the product) for producing one lakh Aakash 2 pieces by March 31, 2013. It’s nowhere near the target, Ministry says.

“Datawind has failed to deliver. We have written to IIT Bombay to ensure that Datawind fulfils the terms and conditions of the contract. Penalty clause can be invoked otherwise,” Secretary Higher Education Ashok Thakur today said. Datawind, Ministry sources said, could face black listing for violating the contract. Ministry sources said it had supplied just 20,000 pieces against the promised 1.50 lakh.

HRD Minister MM Pallam Raju said “people should not get obsessed with the Aakash hardware. IIT Bombay is developing Aakash and we will have enough players in the market to bring down the cost. The student will then buy what he likes the most,” Raju said.

Asked what happened to the Government’s promise of providing cheap tablets to college students, Raju wondered if such a promise was ever made.

“We had no plans of distributing these tablets. Even these one lakh pieces were to be used for research purpose and not distribution by IIT Bombay. There was an earlier proposal worth Rs 700 crore to create a fund which would allow us to pay 50 pc cost of the tablet. Anyone could have supplied the tablets and a PSU was to be involved in calling for the tenders of the tablet. But that is still pending,” Thakur explained.