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Aakash to be free for all students, promises govt

Aakash to be free for all students, promises govt

By Press Trust of India | Updated: 5 June 2012 18:57 IST

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Highlights

The low cost, made in India Aakash tablet will now be even cheaper and more homegrown.

The low cost, made in India Aakash tablet will now be even cheaper and more homegrown. HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said today that the tablet's production base will now be diversified and made completely indigenous: "We are now going to diversify production base and indigenise Aakash tablet. We are planning to create eco-system for end to end development of Aakash in India. This will create enormous opportunities for R&D institutions,developers, electronic production houses."

This will bring the tablet's already low price tag of Rs.2276 (based on an initial order of one lakh units) to Rs 1500. The price reduction will take into account profit and transportation costs, and will be implemented once the orders go upto 10 lakhs.

Educational institutions will get a discount of 50% and will have to pay the remaining Rs.750 on each tablet so that the students will get the device at absolutely no cost. At present, the device is available to students at Rs.1,100 after a government subsidy.

The HRD Ministry has already said that it will require an additional 22 crore units of the Aakash and that fresh tenders will be issued for this from companies apart from present manufacturer Datawind.

Asked if the next tender will have 'made in India' clause in it, Sibal said, "Well, we want to make sure that it is 100 per cent done locally ultimately." At present, several components including the processor are procured from outside India.

The government also plans to involve three more IITs to develop the Aakash project further. Apart from IIT Rajasthan, which is spearheading the project, IIT Mumbai, IIT Madras and IIT Kanpur will also be roped in, sources in the HRD Ministry said.

Improvements will also be made to the device itself, including it's speed, which will go up to 800 MHz from the current 300 MHz.

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