Students to get Aakash tablet for free

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.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 8 Feb 2012 22:30

LordRuss

I wouldn't mind having one of these to play with, but I almost feel guilty for even mentioning it for fear of perpetuating a market of slavery for a product under which this thing may already been produced/built.

They appear to be available in Canada for around the $60 mark, but I think that's for schools exclusively (given the articles I quickly got my hands on) & only through subsidies. Basically meaning tax payers bought the bulk of them anyway.

Kinda leaves you wondering what the other companies are thinking about when it comes to their pricing points. I.e., CrApple charges 10xs the amount for only 45% more advanced technology, that has equally sat on the shelf for over 2 years.

Under Akash's program their even talking about giving college student's the tablets for free. While iPud is drooling at the student text book scam with aplomb.

Man... attitudes over here have to change.

http://onlyinrussellsworld.blogspot.com

9.2.2012 11:05 #1

irfan4 (unverified)

This should given to all collages personally by commiti members , enginerring, Polytechnic collages please thing that

9.2.2012 11:27 #2

irfan4 (unverified)

that should be very nice that except iindia in the other countries they use notebokk,in india we use books, that thing is very nice,that every student should have to get tablet for all the fututre things its will be there like books text books etc ,just wasting of paper thats so nice Akash good thought

9.2.2012 11:34 #3

pmshah

I think its an excellent idea. Forget the hardware, just the M$ Home Basic OS costs 3 times as much on a desktop. Students would be learning on an open platform from which it would be much easier to migrate when required.

It may not contain all the bells and whistles but all the essentials to be productive would be included.

BTW Bharat Electronics is a major electronics manufacturing facility where the workers are NOT working slave shifts like at Foxconn to produce motherboards and mobile phones. They DO have a much better life than the employees of Wal-Mart.

13.2.2012 09:44 #4

tommy108

Originally posted by irfan4: that should be very nice that except iindia in the other countries they use notebokk,in india we use books, that thing is very nice,that every student should have to get tablet for all the fututre things its will be there like books text books etc ,just wasting of paper thats so nice Akash good thought
just got back from goa in india and tried to buy one but not available in goa told to go to bombay but not worth the flight

13.2.2012 14:27 #5

LordRuss

Originally posted by awais_aslam: What is purpose of these tablet and why this is only for student..? Thanku. UUuhm... the article compadre... helping get 3rd world nations acclimatized to new technology by making it affordable to everyone, but primarily/only through schools. Touch on the links within the articles & do some exploration/research there bud. Otherwise your short sentences with possibly redundant questions make you appear to be trying to rapid-fire update your user status as this has been kind of a common occurrence in a bunch of the other forums.

http://onlyinrussellsworld.blogspot.com

15.2.2012 12:05 #6

srijan sk (unverified)

i think its realy good.bt when the student r getting this?plz inform me?edited by ddp

20.3.2012 01:44 #7

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