Aakash 2 can cost US $ 100 following IIT-Rajasthan recommendations

The world’s cheapest tablet Aakash with enhanced specifications may not come cheap. The price of water and shock proof Aakash 2 with four time faster processor and better battery life than the original may cost about US $ 100.

Updated on: Feb 9, 2012, 02:12:05 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

The world’s cheapest tablet Aakash with enhanced specifications may not come cheap.

The price of water and shock proof Aakash 2 with four time faster processor and better battery life than the original may cost about US $ 100. The Aakash tablet was launched in last October by HRD minister Kapil Sibal and Montreal based Datawind got an order to supply the government one lakh tablets at US $ 50.

Now, both private and public sector technology companies have told the government that supplying a million Aakash 2 tablets at the original tablet cost will not be possible. The jump in the tablet’s cost is on account of new "military" like test criterion specified by the Indian Institute of Technology, Rajasthan, after Datawind’s tablet failed to meet the expectations of 600 IIT students across India.

The institute wants Aakash 2 to run at – 20 degree and up to 50 degree Celsius, withstand steep and sudden fall and waterproof against rain. It has specified a 1.2 Gega Hertz (Ghz) microprocessor as against 366 mega hertz (Mhz) in Aakash and random access memory (RAM) of 700 megabytes, double of the original. The battery specified can run up to eight hours. “Manufacturing a tablet with IIT (Rajasthan) specifications at the original cost was impossible,” a government official said. “It will be difficult even for US $100”.

Two public sector companies Indian Telephone Industries (ITI) and Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited (BHEL) was willing to meet the government’s requirement of a million tablets but not at the original price. “Because of higher price for a US dollar component will cost much more. Insulation costs are also very high,” the official explained.

Maypad, a tablet with comparable technological specifications of Aakash 2 costs about US $ 100. Others like Classpad cost up to US $ 150. One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) promoted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which matches new Aakash’s technological and ruggedness specifications, is priced at US $ 230.

Sibal earlier this month announced that Aakash 2 will not cost more and said the ten time (from one lakh to one million) increase in the ministry’s order for tablets will bring the price down.

Caught in the catch-22 situation, the HRD ministry is working on how to prevent increase in cost of Aakash 2. The other IITs have been asked to give suggestions on Aakash 2 specifications of IIT Rajasthan. “I am hopeful of resolving the price issue,” said a senior HRD ministry official.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Catch every big hit, every wicket with Crickit, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Infographics & much more. Explore now!

Stay updated with all top Cities including, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and more across India. Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News along with Delhi Election 2025 and Delhi Election Result 2025 Live, New Delhi Election Result Live, Kalkaji Election Result Live at Hindustan Times.