India launches low-cost tablet computer - 35 dollars for students

Oct 5, 2011, 12:16 GMT

New Delhi - India on Wednesday launched a low-cost tablet computer, called Aakash - sky in Hindi, to be sold at a subsidized cost of about 35 dollars to poorer students.

Federal Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal unveiled the device at a ceremony in New Delhi.

With a retail price of 2,999 rupees (60 dollars), the tablet would be sold to students at a subsidized rate of 1,750 rupees, Sibal said in an interview with broadcaster NDTV.

There will be an initial roll-out of 100,000 units, the government said, and the tablet would eventually reach 10 million students, the cost decreasing with increased production.

The tablet has been developed by Britain-based company Datawind and is assembled in India.

It has a seven-inch touchscreen, weighs about 350 grammes and uses an Android 2.2 operating system. It has two USB ports and a 32GB expandable memory but a lesser 256 megabyte random access memory (RAM).

'I want to tell people across the world that this is not just about India, it's about the future of all children,' Sibal said. 'I invite everyone in the business to collaborate with us to do something for our children.'

The 60-dollar tablet for retail sales has an inbuilt cellular modem and SIM to access the internet, which is not available in the device supplied to the government.

'As a business, we need to make a profit, and our distribution channel needs to make a profit, which is all covered in the MRP (maximum retail price) of 2,999 rupees,' the Economic Times newspaper quoted Suneet Singh Tuli, chief executive of Datawind, as saying.

The commercial version is expected to be available by December.

Only 8.4 per cent of Indians have access to the internet, compared to more than 36 per cent in China, according to the Internet World Stats website.