296 - Low Cost Netbook of NMEICT

Low Cost Netbook of NMEICT
Kannan M. Moudgalya IIT Bombay
15 January 2014

It is well known that IIT Bombay has been executing a low cost tablet project, funded by NMEICT. Improving its capability is one of the mandates, so as to make the device more useful. In this report, we explain a netbook that has come out as a result of this exercise.

The netbook mentioned above has a 10” screen and a complete keyboard. It is almost a laptop. We have procured 1,000 units of this device at a cost of Rs. 4,990 plus customs and tax, with the total cost coming to less than Rs. 6,000. This device is supplied to us by a Delhi based company called Basic Computers. It is assembled in a state of the art plant in Manesar, Haryana. Our team at IIT Bombay has developed a modified version of the open source operating system (OS) Ubuntu, and named it as FOSSEE, eponymous with the open source promotion project, also funded by NMEICT. This device has the following features:

1. 10” screen, non touch
2. Complete keyboard
3. 1GHz dual core WM8880 ARM v7 Processor 4. 1GB RAM
5. 8GB NAND flash
6. 32GB SD card slot
7. Two USB drives
8. One mini HDMI port
9. Ethernet port (RJ45)
10. 5,000 mAH battery
11. Wifi and blue tooth
12. Light weight (less than 1kg)

As the operating system is a version of Linux, we can pre-load the system with useful software packages and distribute them. A set of close to 100 packages that will be pre- loaded and distributed is given in at this link. Thus, while the hardware is procured from outside, the OS image and the accompanying software bundle is created by us.

This device is yet to be named, and yet to be launched. We present some pictures and screenshots of this Netbook next.

Please click on this link to read full pdf file

295 - Datawind to bring cheap Android smartphones with free Internet - Indian Express

Datawind to bring cheap Android smartphones with free Internet

Written by Nandagopal Rajan | Posted: January 27, 2015 6:47 pm

Datawind, which was behind the affordable Aakash tablets, is now working on launching multiple smartphones priced under Rs 3,000.

IndianExpress.com was the first to report that the company will launch another smartphone with 3G support, 4-inch touchscreen and powered by a 1.2GHz processor running Android KitKat. The cheaper phone will be a 2G device.

Datawind is likely to up the ante by offering free Internet for consumers for at least a year. Free Internet has been a USP of Datawind devices, driven by the company’s prowess in data compression.

Datawind CEO Suneet Singh Tuli says the smartphone price revolution has to happen in the Rs 2,000 range where people still have only feature phone options. He says there is a window of opportunity till the overall price of entry-level smartphones drops to under Rs 3,000. This figure is over Rs 5,000 at the moment.

Around 65 per cent of the phones sold in India are still priced under Rs 4,000 are tend to be mostly feature phones or smart feature phones. “The difficulty of that customer is that he is not going to stretch to buy a Rs 6,000 device as his income is not growing at that pace,” says Tuli. He says the free internet could really drive device adoption at the entry level.

294 - A Smartphone with Free Internet? How Datawind Could Achieve the Extraordinary - International Business Times

A Smartphone with Free Internet? How Datawind Could Achieve the Extraordinary

• By Prarthito Maity January 27, 2015 16:11 IST

Handset maker Datawind, of the low-cost Aakash tablet fame, is planning on bringing out a new handset that will offer free "lifetime" internet. 

Datawind

Although the company had announced last September that it was planning on launching a smartphone with free internet by Diwali last year, the plans never really came into motion. However, this time around, things could fall perfectly is place for the company.

However, it is being said that cost of the smartphone has been raised from ₹2,000 to ₹3,000. Apart from that, unlike last year when the company had promised free "lifetime" internet, this time it has re-done the entire deal by promising only "free basis internet services," that too only for one year.

"We are in talks with a private operator to launch mobile phones with free basic Internet services for one year to start with. It should cost around Rs 3,000 a unit. We have raised CAD 30 million (about Rs 150 crores) through our public offer and all that is earmarked for this project," Datawind founder and chief executive officer Suneet Singh Tuli told PTI.

"We are just waiting for signing of the final deal and am hopeful that it should be done by February as they will also gain from the increase in data usage," Tuli added.

While things with a 'free' tag attached to it are usually treated with more excitement than usual, we are still waiting to see the kind of features that will be embedded into the phone to make use of the promised 'free internet' feature. Until then, the phone remains alongside others in the same price range.?

293 - IIT Bombay unveils ‘world’s cheapest’ netbook - Economic Times

IIT Bombay unveils ‘world’s cheapest’ netbook

Anumeha Chaturvedi, ET Bureau Jan 23, 2015, 04.05AM IST

NEW DELHI: IIT Bombay has developed a 10-inch netbook, which it claims could be the world's cheapest, at around Rs 6,000. The netbook, conceived during the institute's work with the low-cost Akash tablet, will be unveiled in the second week of February. "We wanted a device that would make it easy for people to 'create' information.

The netbook was born out of this desire," says professor Kannan Moudgalya at IIT Bombay. He explains that while a tablet is useful to retrieve information, a netbook can create it, through processes such as programming and data entry.

The IIT Bombay team has worked on designing the netbook's specifications besides creating the OS image and the accompanying software bundle.

"One of the mandates of the lowcost tablet project was to continue to do research and development on affordable access-cum-computing devices," says Moudgalya.

The project's objective was to understand its shortcomings and address them in the next product. In a bid to address the needs of students and to drive information creation, the team at IIT Bombay thought it was important to have a fully functional keyboard as opposed to a virtual keyboard, more battery time, a larger screen size (10 inches as compared to a 7-inch screen on a tablet), greater memory, more storage, a normal USB slot (not a micro USB), while not letting go of the price focus. The netbook also needed to be light-weight for students to carry comfortably.

"We put in a lot of effort to arrive at specifications for the hardware — trying out various machines available in the market, working with different design specifications, and then looking for manufacturers through a tender process," says Moudgalya.

IIT Bombay has tied up with Delhi-based company Basic Computers, which has delivered 1,000 netbooks for the pilot phase.

Under the pilot, IIT Bombay plans to lend these netbooks to all first year B Tech students at the institute who have to undergo an introductory programming course, CS 101.

Out of nearly 450 students who are taking this course in the current semester, close to 100 do not have their own laptops.

The HRD ministry's Akash project, undertaken during the UPA regime, was marred by launch delays and quality issues. "With the new government focusing on virtual classrooms, low-cost computing devices are the need of the hour, but there has to be a focus on quality. Also, the pricing shouldn't hamper functionality," says Rohin Kapoor, senior manager education practice at Deloitte.

Moudgalya says the Akash project has been completed successfully at IIT Bombay's end. One of the objectives of this project, he says, was to explore the viability of such a low-cost tablet. The second objective was to bring down the prices of such devices in the market. "We have achieved both these objectives and it is now with the Directorate General of Supplies and Disposals for final procurement," he adds.

292 - Datawind to launch Android phones under Rs.3,000 bracket. - India Today

Datawind to launch Android phones under Rs.3,000 bracket.

Datawind, the brand behind the popular Aakash Tablet initiative, will soon launch its own range of  smart phones costing  below the price bracket of Rs.3,000.

The range will consist of a 3G smartphone which will be slightly expensive than the 2G variant in the same line up.

The 3G smartphone will come with a 4- inch touchscreen and will be powered by a 1.2GHz processor. the make of the chipset has not been confirmed yet. The smartphone is most likely to come with Android KitKat out of the box.

The cheaper variant is most likely to just come with 2G speeds. With 3G network still limited in India the cheaper variant will prove to be a better deal for people looking for ultra cheap smartphones. Datawind will be offering features like free internet for a year to its users to penetrate deep in the market. Thsi feature is possible due to Datawind's exceptional ability to compress data.

The CEO of Datawind Suneet Singh Tuli is targeting the lowest possible price bracket for its devices as according to him providing a cheap alternative to feature phones will revolutionize the reach of smartphones in India.

Tuli further explained that 65 percent of the phones sold in India are under the price bracket of Rs.4,000 and to make an impact on the entry level market the free internet, Android powered phone has to be priced below that amount.

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/technology/story/datawind-to-launch-android-phones-under-rs-3000-bracket./1/414117.html

291 - Data Wind CEO Suneet Singh Tuli receives B harat Samman Award and GPS Award

Data Wind CEO Suneet Singh Tuli receives B harat Samman Award and GPS Award

Please Click on Title to Read Article

http://techone3.in/datawind-ceo-suneet-singh-tuli-receives-bharat-samman-award-gps-award-4206/

290 - Incentivise low-cost technology to help achieve ‘Make in India’ - Asian Age

Incentivise low-cost technology to help achieve ‘Make in India’

Jan 15, 2015 | Age Correspondent | Mumbai

The government can incentivise Indian scientific institutions to focus on affordable excellence in the context of the Prime Minister’s various sche-mes like ‘Make in India’ , said Dr R. Mashelkar, National Research Professor, CSIR-National Che-mical Laboratory.

Going forward also, “it is important that the government launches a Digital Inclusive Innovation initiative so that digital India become truly inclusive”, he added.

Speaking to this newspaper from Pune, Dr Mashelkar said, “When he was director general of CSIR, they had instituted the New Millennium Ind-ian Technology Leaders-hip Initiative (NMITLI), which was a public private partnership directed exc-lusively towards affordable excellence that beca-me a game-changer”.

“We need to launch national grand challenges for vaccines to therapeutics to tablets. We did make the $35 Akash tablet, after all,” he added.

Dr Mashelkar who heads the Prime Minister’s Swaach Bharat Technical Expert Committee, said the government can create special drivers for digital inclusive innovation by targeted funding for digital inclusion based R&D (like NMITLI).

It can also suitably design incentivisation (including fiscal) for all stakeholders participating in digital inclusion; give government procurement and price preference on products meeting the inclusive innovation’ mandate like the low cost Aakash tablet; and have a conducive policy frameworks to promote ‘digital inclusive innovation’.

Dr Mashelkar said Indian scientists can harness truly sophisticated science or technology to achieve high quality goods and services that are affordable to many, and not just a privileged few.

Digital India, he said will impact everything as there will be universal mobile access to online government services and basic delivery services.