How the world's cheapest tablet computer was born

The idea to develop the world's cheapest computer was born in 2005 when HRD ministry resisted a proposal of the Planning Commission to buy $100 (approx Rs 5,000) laptop developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology for students to access internet easily. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Oct 6, 2011, 24:38:04 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The idea to develop the world's cheapest computer was born in 2005 when HRD ministry resisted a proposal of the Planning Commission to buy $100 (approx Rs 5,000) laptop developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology for students to access internet easily.

The average cost of a laptop then was around $800 (approx Rs 40,000) and the MIT's device seemed cheap. Most educationists were ready to buy the argument expect NK Sinha, an IITian, then joint secretary in the ministry.

He urged that India can produce a simple computing device for students at $10 (approx Rs 500). "People called it an impossible task," Sinha recalled before the launch of $50 (approx Rs 2,470) tablet called Aakash.

Education secretary RP Aggarwal was convinced and allowed Sinha to constitute a small group of fellow IITians and experts to work on the idea.

Breakthrough came in 2007, when a final year student of IIT developed a motherboard - provides electrical connection to other components in a computer - suitable to run a low-cost computing device. "It was the first hope of realising a dream," Sinha, now additional secretary in HRD ministry, said.

It took another two years for the team of experts to develop a model for the low-cost device. In January 2007, the government included the model for funding under the National Mission for Information Communication and Technology and IIT Rajasthan bagged the job to develop the device.

The man in-charge of the project in IIT Rajasthan was its director Prem Kalra, whose son provided the first breakthrough. Over 170 students from his campus finally developed a prototype in 2009. After its initial testing, the cost of the device was projected as $35 (approx R1750).

A tender for one lakh devices was floated and Datawind bagged the project with the lowest bid of $37.98 (approx Rs 1,880).

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

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