India has unveiled plans to produce a laptop computer costing just $10 in a bid to improve the skills of millions of students across the country. <\/p>\n
The laptops will be mass-produced as part of a government-sponsored education scheme launched on Tuesday in the southern city of Tirupati.<\/p>\n
Details about the computer remained scare, but Higher Education Secretary R.P. Agrawal said last week that it would be available within six months.<\/p>\n
"Once the testing is over, the computers will be made available on commercial basis," he told the Press Trust of India news agency.<\/p>\n
"Its cost will be 10 US dollars. If the parents want to gift something to their kids, they can easily purchase this item."<\/p>\n
The laptop will reportedly have a two gigabyte memory and wireless Internet capability, but officials have not publicly demonstrated a prototype, or yet explained how it can be produced at such a low cost.<\/p>\n
The government has earmarked more than 46 billion rupees ($939 million) to develop the low-power gadget to work in rural areas with unreliable power supply and poor Internet connectivity.<\/p>\n
The planned laptop is part of a push to increase the number of students in higher education and give them the technological skills needed to further boost India’s economic growth.<\/p>\n
New Delhi rebuffed a previous attempt to bring cheap laptops to India, led by MIT computer scientist Nicholas Negroponte’s One Laptop Per Child programme.<\/p>\n
The government cited hidden costs for its rejection of that computer, which was dubbed the 100-dollar laptop.<\/p>\n