Kumari Palany & Co

No. of views : (2552)

SIBAL UNVEILS LOW COST COMPUTER.

Posted on: 23/Jul/2010 1:39:10 AM

Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal unveiled the low cost computing-cum-access device in New Delhi on Thursday. He said that it would be made available through educational institutions by 2011. The price is expected to be Rs 1500, he said, in course of time it price might drop down. This will when launched will be the cheapest system in the world and this would be made available to 20 crore children across the country and the total cost is expected to be approximately Rs. 10,000 crore, including a 50 per cent subsidy component.

Since this effort of continuous reduction in price and enhancement in capabilities would require a constant endeavour for research and development, Indian Institutes of Technology and other technical institutions are setting up research teams to cover a wide range of issues in achieving the ultimate goal in terms of price and quality, the Minister said.

The new device is an improvement over the one launched at Tirupathi in Andhra Pradesh last year that had come under criticism for various reasons, including the cost.

The government will also try and patent some technology used in the devices though most of the parts were available over the shelf, N.K. Sinha, Joint Secretary in charge of the project said. The device has a touch-screen, video-conferencing facility, multimedia content, searchable Pdf reader, unzip tool, and storage. Work is now on to provide these with solar panels.

Under the National Mission on Education through Information and Technology (NMEICT), connectivity is proposed to be provided to universities and colleges. In nearly 8,500 colleges already connected, high quality e-content in various subjects is being created. Under the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning, nearly 500 web-based and video courses are available and uploaded on ‘ sakshat` and other portals. Another 1,100 courses in various disciplines of engineering and sciences are also being generated.