India's Low cost $10 or $20 Sakshat Laptop-What is it ? A Reality Check!

I had information that The Ministry of Human Resource Development India will soon unveil its Ultra low cost Laptop. They recently ie. on February 3rd displayed it in Tirupati. So, what we get and what we expected, we need to understand the differences.

Certainly the cause is noble ie. to provide ultra low cost Laptop to help in spreading education to the remotest area of the Rural India. The promises were made that Laptop can revolutionize field of education in India. In India where population is more than 1.2 billion yet school accounts for only 80,000. So spreading the education is one of the most daunting task for India.

Went on looking into the Sakshat Laptop which was promised to be priced at $10 (roughly Rs. 500) got priced at $30 in actual production environment. But the Human Resource Development Ministry is assured to bring down its price to $10.

Though price is really a big constraint here but what you expect from a Laptop. When I first about $10 laptop then I thought we will get something small monochrome display or say something similar to old days digital diary. But when the so called Sakshat Laptop was unveiled, it turn out to be no more than a joke. The device is 5x10 inches in size and has a few wire ports coming out of it and no apparently no display.

The only information provided was that it has 2GB storage, WiFi access along with LAN access and USB port. The Picture of the device that it resemble more to old days palmtop than a laptop. Clearly thing like Laptop was not there at all. However, designed by students of Vellore Institute of Technology, scientists in Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, IIT-Madras, UGC and MHRD.. had some other intentions in their mind ?

Then HRD ministry called it by the name of computing device. Ok it is a small computing device and was a prototype then why all the fuzz of calling it laptop? He said that this device needs fine tuning, ok we understand but how the heck it is a Laptop.

Here I have to mention that OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) foundation tried hard to produce cheap-low cost laptop for developing nation but then too they were only able to produce the laptop at the cost of $188. Definitely then announcing a $10 laptop by Indian HRD Ministry attracted whole world's attention. No one had a very high expectation as price tag was so tight ie. $10 but again atleast something should be there. But on revelation we received a box with very few technical details about it and that too not less than a JOKE.

As explained by HRD Ministry, Sakshat's main purpose is to serve the area of education by providing easy access and downloading to TEXT books but even then too, how many people have access to internet and interestingly, the Sakshat will be made available to the student community soon with the first lot reaching the colleges affiliated to The University of Andhra Pradesh soon.

So obviously was a disappointment for everyone which just gave world media a reason to laugh upon Indian Scientist and specially the HRD Ministry. They should have tested its feasibility before making it public. It turn out to be a prank. If you look reports from various media worldwide then you will see headings like:

India’s $10 Laptop Sounds Like a Bad Joke

$10 laptop a damp squib

India's '$10 Laptop' Revealed as Nearly Useless Brick

$10-laptop proves to be a damp squib

“£7 laptop” turns out to be nothing of the sort


Looks like India's plan to give technology ride to education is based on a BRICK ? Moreover, other than Laptop, the device seems to make JOKE of India in front of whole world. Over hyped and without sufficient feasibility test, it turns out to be a unplanned teen joke.

Again, this who is responsible for this ? I highly suspect inefficient bureaucracy who just wanted to have one day publicity and self satisfaction without realizing the its practical implement.

Yes....totally understand your point. May be investing the total budget behind setting up small computer centers in remote areas would have given the whole objective a more meaningful boost.

Thumbs up to you.
Thumbs down to Govt.

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yeah really nice 1 guys... definitely a nice thing to buy..

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Originally Posted by sunidhi

yeah really nice 1 guys... definitely a nice thing to buy..

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Do you even know what you're talking about?

That device is completely flop.
Bloggers and Writers made fun of India calling that device as "Stupid white box", 'Poor joke" and 'Damp Squib"

Indian Govt should strictly stop such quackery announcements, and put a halt on being laughing stock

read more here-
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&c...+squib&spell=1