Anubhuti Vishnoi : New Delhi, Fri Jun 21 2013, 02:06 hrs
Roping in a third IIT to get the Aakash tablet project moving, the Human Resource Development Ministry has now asked the Indian Institute of Technology Madras to steer the project. IIT Madras will work on the next version of the Aakash tablet while IIT Bombay will continue to field test the tablet and evolve related pedagogical method and tools.
HRD Minister Pallam Raju said that his ministry was "very supportive of the R&D on the Aakash tablet". "We have now asked IIT Madras to help develop the next version of the tablet. IIT Bombay will continue the testing of tablets and training teachers and students to use technology in education with its help," he said.
IIT Madras's Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala, who is closely involved with the Aakash tablet project -- in developing its newer versions and an ecosystem for it -- is expected to head it at the institution.
Incidentally, with the ministry showing little enthusiasm in the project of late -- amid manufacturing and procuring problems -- Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal had swung into action getting his ministry to finalise specifications for the next version of the tablet. He had mooted a proposal to the PMO to establish manufacturing hubs for the tablet in India and to route this through the Department of Science & Technology.
Announced with great fan fare, the low cost tablet has been mired in controversies from the start. While the project was first given to IIT Rajasthan, it was moved out of there amid differences between the IIT and Canadian manufacturer Datawind over the testing specifications and quality of the tablet delivered. The project was finally handed over to IIT Bombay.
