IIT-M ALL SET TO MAKE CHEAP AAKASH TABLETS !!!
JULY 11, 2013 ·UNCATEGORIZED ·BY ADMIN
You may soon get a new ultra low-cost tablet personal computer for your college life.
Researchers at Indian Institute of Technology – Madras are ready with the technical blue-prints to manufacture Aakash 4, the low-cost student-oriented tablet introduced by Ministry of Human Resource and Development.
Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala, from Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Madras, has been providing guidance to the stated project.
An upgraded version of Aakash 2, this model would be priced as low as below Rs 2,000 for the students.This version will be based on open specification. Unlike the Aakash 2 which was an Android-based tablet computer developed by the British company Datawind, multiple vendors will be able to manufacture the Aakash 4.Around ten vendors, including big players such as HP, Lenovo and Dell, have evinced interest in developing the low-cost tablets, said Prof BhaskarRamamurthi, Director, IIT Madras.
“They [the vendors] have come to the conclusion that the specification that has been made here is good enough for use in education. Is it comparable to iPad, of course not. It is not a toy, but will be of use for the students. That’s all I know,” he commented. The Government will issue the tender and the vendors need to bid to mass manufacture the product, he said.
This time the government plans to non-commercialize the distribution of the Aakash 4 tablets, it will procure and sell the tablets to students directly without any external aid. No financing cost or marketing cost or any tax would be imposed upon the product, letting the students pay only for the actual material cost. The advantage of this move may be realized from the fact that the same unit’s cost will be easily doubled if it is sold in the market.
You might be the lucky person to get the all new Aakash tablet. So, stay tuned for more information and we’ll keep you posted.
