The Indian government are working alongside scientists from its Institute of
Technology in
Bangalore and
Madras to develop a
laptop that will retail for £7. A prototype of the new
notebook is set to be unveiled in Tirupati this week, in the hope that the portable
PC can bring 20,000 colleges onto the
internet to be able to connect to the country’s e-learning initiative, which aims to spread the urban educational advantages to rural
India . Although the machine costs £14 to produce, the government hope to be able to slash that price in half for retailing purposes with the support of distributors and major developers.
The laptop will run on low power, and can be charged with a 2 watt power input. The machine will also have low
memory, boasting just 2 gigabytes, though that can be enhanced. The
computer does, however, have the capacity to connect to
wireless internet networks, and the option to project from the
monitor to assist classroom learning.
R P Agarwal, India’s Secretary for Higher Education, said, ‘The idea is to create a device which is very low power, so that it can work at 2 watt range even in villages where power supply is a problem. Attempts are on to see how a solar-charged or dynamo-powered device can be developed.’