The
One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organisation is to step up efforts to sell its XO
laptops to the Indian market. The foundation is hoping to introduce the laptops in Indian schools before the end of 2009, principally targeting the 6-13 age group. The laptops will be sold for Rs15,000 – roughly £210. It is hoped that the increased efforts in
India will see an increase on the 1,000 XO laptops already circulating across six schools within India. The laptops will not feature in the retail market in India. They come equipped with a 1GB
hard disk drive, 512MB of
RAM, three
USB drives and an in-built camera.
Satish Jha, president and chief executive officer of One
Laptop Per Child, said, ‘We are presently talking to many schools, mainly in
Delhi and Pune, and expect more than 50,000 schools to be working with the principle of one laptop per child within the next couple of years. Companies like
Bajaj Auto are evaluating investing into this initiative. Some companies have asked us for proposals up to 1,000 laptops and there are some states that have asked for 150,000 laptops. We are reaching out to each state and union territory government as well as the central ministry of school
education, top 100 corporations in India as well as some high net-worth individuals, foundations and NGOs.’