21st Feb 2012
First Published: Tue, Feb 21 2012. 01 15 AM IST
Updated: Tue, Feb 21 2012. 08 49 AM IST
New Delhi: The government’s ambitious project of making available the world’s cheapest tablet to Indian students suffered a setback after Union minister for human resource development (HRD) Kapil Sibal said that it’s severing ties with Canada-based DataWind Ltd, which was first mandated to provide 100,000 units of the device.
Instead, the government is proposing to assemble the tablet on its own and eventually indigenize the product, while retaining the initial price.
The product got global attention after it was priced at $45 (Rs 2,276 at the time of the launch), but was criticized for poor functionality and shoddy performance in field trials. Even after the company rejected the additional specifications sought by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Jodhpur, Rajasthan, which was in charge of procuring and testing the device, the government did not give up on the project. The additional specifications were similar to those for rugged HP (Hewlett-Packard Co.) computers used by the US military.
The government is now planning to launch an upgraded version of the tablet as a completely indigenous product under the supervision of a high-powered committee comprising members from the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), department of information technology, the IITs at Kanpur, Mumbai, Chennai and Jodhpur, and some public sector units, according to two senior government officials, who did not want to be named.
Sibal told news agency Press Trust of India in an interview that “DataWind—the manufacturer of the product—will not be associated with it any more”, and that the government has roped in others for further development of the tablet. “There have been some problems with DataWind I must confess,” he was cited as saying. “Therefore, I have got into the act. The IT ministry has got C-DAC and (state-run) ITI Ltd into the act, and I am going to ensure that this product is fully indigenous and truly an Indian product.”
Even though DataWind’s initial mandate was to provide 100,000 tablets, it has only provided 10,000 to IIT-Jodhpur. On the other hand, it claims to have sold many more in the open market. According to its official website, the upgraded Aakash, or the UbiSlate 7+, has bookings till end-March.
In an email response, the company said: “DataWind does not have any communication from the ministry of HRD about this.”
According to one of the two government officials cited above, the “HRD ministry will float a fresh tender in the next few days and the newly set-up committee will see how the procurement process and specifications can suit the need of the time”.
However, the official said there will be no rethink on the price specified on 5 October, when the product was unveiled. “The Rs 2,276 price point will not be violated.”
Another official, who is part of the panel, said that it has been formed to come up with modified specifications for Aakash “and nothing to carry from the previous baggage”.
The official added that the panel has two agenda items. One is to meet the immediate need for the tablet, which will be taken care of by Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) and Electronics Corp. of India Ltd. “The other agenda is to look at how the tablet can be developed completely in India in the long run,” he said.
Though the ministry has an ultimate target of procuring some 220 million Aakash tablets, the forthcoming tender would be for 5 million units.
On 7 February, Sibal had told reporters that he was working on making Aakash a completely indigenous product and had a round of discussions with stakeholders concerned, including state-owned BEL in Bangalore. The low-cost tablet currently meets just 19% of the specifications that were sought.
The focus on indigenization is part of the strategy to give a fillip to electronics manufacturing.
“For some time now, the thinking has prevailed in the government that a low-cost computer would result in higher adoption, whereas there are other aspects that are important beyond affordability like content and connectivity,” said Kapil Dev Singh, founder and principal consultant of Coeus Age, a consulting firm. “I think the idea of creating the cheapest computer should not be thrown out, but the price point has to be realistic.”
He added that “when such unrealistic projects fail, it makes it difficult for the next initiative to be successful as pessimism comes as baggage”.
IIT-Jodhpur director Prem Kalra declined to comment on Monday, saying that he has been travelling for the last few days.
