The document summarizes India's efforts to develop an affordable tablet computer for common citizens. [1] A prototype tablet was unveiled that would cost $35 and possibly lower, using Linux and basic functions like a web browser and multimedia. [2] Students helped design the motherboard and the goal is to get the cost down to $10-20 to improve inclusive education across the country. [3] While the very low price is exciting, mass production and ongoing development are still challenges that need to be addressed for the tablet to reach the public.

1. Christ University
Information Technology for Business
Topic: The Common Man’s Laptop
By Kushal S S (08D0062)
V Semester B.com “A”
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July 22nd 2010
India on Thursday unveiled a prototype tablet computer that would sell for a mere
1,500 rupees, or $35, with the price possibly dropping even further as R&D efforts
continue.
Kapil Sibal, the country's Minister for Human
Resource Development, showed off the super-
cheap touch-screen device in New Delhi as part
of a push to provide high-quality education to
students across the country. The tablet also
comes with a solar-power option that could
make it more feasible for rural areas.
Who are happy?
Everybody in the country is happy about this
as technology is being made affordable to
the common man. The students are the
happiest as this emerged from a student
project with a bill of material adding up to
$47, a price that the minister wants to bring
down to $10 "to take forward inclusive
education"

2. Features of the Laptop
The Linux-based computer at first glance resembles an
Apple iPad and features basic functions you'd expect to
see in a tablet- a Web browser, multimedia player,
PDF reader, Wi-Fi, and video conferencing ability. It
has 2GB of RAM (but no hard disk, instead using a
memory card) and USB ports and could be available to
kids from primary school up to the university level as
early as next year.
Students from several branches of the Indian Institute of Technology co-designed
motherboards for the computer, which the ministry would like to see dropping to
$20 and possibly getting as low as $10.
Challenges
While the extremely low price of India's newly
unveiled tablet is generating much hoopla, the
gadget still faces hurdles before it lands in the
public's hands.
"This is just a prototype," education expert Zubin
Malhotra told. "We need to find people who will
be able to manufacture these devices at these
price points and continue to develop them going
forward."
The Bigger Vision
The tablet is part of a larger initiative aimed
at improving India's educational system
through technology. Technology always has
the capacity to create and destroy things. This
vision of lifting the barriers that comes
between a common man & technology can be
removed and make the country a better place to live.
THANK YOU