Andre Yoskowitz
8 Feb 2012 22:30
The Indian government will offer the low cost Aakash tablet to students for free, subsidizing the already cheap price.
50 percent of the subsidy will be from the government, with the rest of the subsidy coming from the educational institution where the student attends.
The tablet, which sells in India for 2500 rupees ($40), was created to help "students in higher education and to give them the technological skills" that are needed for 2012. At $40, the tablet is affordable almost everywhere in India, where wages remain low.
Says HRD Minister Kapil Sibal: "We want to give Akash tablets in the hands of every student, then this will be useful. We had a meeting with Bharat Electronics, we are looking for manufacturing all components of the Akash tablet indigenously. Otherwise, it will not be possible to distribute it as widely as planned."
The Aakash has a 7-inch resistive display, runs on Android 2.2, has a 366 MHz processor, 256MB RAM, 2GB internal storage, Wi-Fi, USB slots, SD slot and a tiny 2100 mAh battery.
An upgraded, commercial version dubbed the UbiSlate7+ is set for release in February for $60 sporting a 700MHz processor, 3G radio and a 3200 mAh battery.