

India unveils $30 Tablet PC - aditiyaa1
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/india-unveils-rs-1500-tablet-pc/127289-11.html?from=tn

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ajju
Based on past experience (personal and otherwise), any technology or project
touted by the Indian government (and most governments, at that) is vaporware
until shipped.

The $30 number is doubtful because quite regularly, the government subsidizes
projects to meet numerical targets like this. But the article says the $30
cost doesn't consider the cost of distribution. Even if the hardware really
costs only $30 to make, distribution is going to at least double that. If this
is to be sold by retail vendors, which is the only real way to sell this in a
country like India, add another $30 to the cost.

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todayiamme
>>>any technology or project touted by the Indian government (and most
governments, at that) is vaporware until shipped.<<<

It depends a lot on the leadership and what are the driving forces behind
something like this. Take the Apollo program; you had a charismatic leader
whose death had to be avenged by fulfilling his dream. Further, there was a
clear vision and a sense of urgency along with new leadership conducive to
carrying out that goal. All of that and more made it a success, but the minute
that fervor wore off it was killed. Think about it.

Kapil Sibal is one of the most intense, charismatic and brilliant people I
know. Yes, he is a politician and by virtue he is suspect, but it still holds
true. The programs he set up _do_ work. I am saying this since I benefited
from one of them. He started, or pushed off IRIS
(<http://www.irissciencefair.com/about_iris.php>) the indian version of ISEF
(<http://www.societyforscience.org/isef/>). That program is simply amazing,
and it gave me the exposure that I desperately needed.

So, maybe you never know. It might work out after all. Whether or not this
will change the basic situation of the indian education system is another
matter altogether.

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ajju
I have to admit Sibal has been doing good things with his education portfolio
such as Eliminating 10th Standard board exams and allowing students to pick
optional subjects regardless of stream. Fingers crossed for this and other
ambitious projects succeeding.

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ww520
I remember there was a $100 laptop claimed to be built by India government for
students couple years ago. Whatever happened to that project?

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jcl
Actually, they proposed to make a $10 laptop, and the device in the article
appears to be the result of that effort. Here's an article from four years ago
covering the proposal:

<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2019126.cms>

~~~
ww520
I just read the article. Are these people for real or living in an ivory
tower? Or are they just fucking lying to the Indian public to spite the $100
MIT Laptop effort? "No one had any doubt about the feasibility of the project.
Everyone is enthusiastic and wants a quick rollout. But we have given
ourselves three years before the first $10 laptop comes out." That sounds like
politician double talk at its finest.

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anupam
Indian government has really ambitious plans here, I will wait to see that how
many of them actually reach to students. The rampant corruption in the
bureaucracy in India, make sure that needy students hardly get any advantage
of this schemes. Best way to make sure that this laptops reaches the students
is to outsource the supply chain to some NGO.

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aditya42
This thing is not going to market for Rs. 1500. That much just about gets you
a barely usable dumbphone around here, no way it's going to get you a tablet
-- even if it runs a free OS like Android.

It's quite an ugly beast though ... anything on the resolution of that
display? Looks very stretched to me.

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ygd
This would be an interesting thing to give to students here in the US, where
$30 dollars is, at most, a day's salary. In India, it could take a month for a
family to earn enough to buy one.

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vkdelta
Indian bureaucracy will increase the price of this device by a factor of 10.

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fmora
Something like this is an excellent candidate for Android OS. If they just
design it with Android in mind they will have quality software and save a huge
amount of money since Android is free.

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pistoriusp
I love how happy and proud that guy looks in the photo.

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morbidkk
more details on this news here <http://bit.ly/9FpaQl>

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angusgr
I think the larger device shown in those photos is an iRobot Apad (aka many
other things): [http://www.androidpads.com/2010/05/04/the-
moonse-e7001-aka-i...](http://www.androidpads.com/2010/05/04/the-
moonse-e7001-aka-irobot-the-7-inch-android-ipad-clone-from-shenzhen/)

Not sure about the smaller one, although it looks kinda familiar.

The "Minimum Functionalities expected" certainly looks like something a
government bureaucrat wrote. "4. Unzip tool for unzipping zip files." in the
same list as "10. Cloud computing option."

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jws
_The device, no bigger than a conventional laptop, …_ – by which they mean
"about 1/4 the size of a conventional laptop"

 _… along with 2GB RAM_ – Almost certainly they mean 2GB of flash.

 _… powered by a 2-watt system to suit poor power supply areas._ – Ok, that's
it. You have overspun my ability to respond.

Except, in the picture, I think the man's eyes say "Take the picture already
and let me stop touching this ghastly thing!"

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_debug_
Please downvote till you actually hear about these being used by real people,
not just a fat Indian minister who probably thinks 8 asterisks is his password
because that's what he sees on the screen when his secretary open his email
for him.

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jyothi
Kapil Sibal, the minister holding the tablet has a MA/ LLB from DU & a LLM
from Harvard.

~~~
netchaos
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapil_Sibal>

