WOW DEN

As the world’s cheapest tablet gets ready to become completely indigenous, speculation over the practicality of its production is gaining new grounds.

The HRD ministry recently announced that Datawind- the company that has been responsible for producing Aakash, will no longer be associated with the project. Spats between Datawind and IIT Rajasthan over specifications of the tablet became a matter of public interest when Datawind accused IIT Rajasthan of asking it to comply with constantly changing specifications. Datawind, on the other hand has been held responsible for not being able to produce the tablets at a rate sufficient to meet the government’s requirements.

Issues also arose over the quality of tablets, with the testers (mostly IIT students) complaining that it was too slow, had a weak battery and insufficiently sensitive resistive screen.

Datawind also drew the HRD ministry’s ire over its decision to offer the tablet in the open market before providing it to the government. Datawind’s commercial version of Aakash –UbiSlate 7 was released in December last year and became an instant hit with the public.
The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing(C-DAC) and the Industrial Training Institutes(ITIs) have now been roped in for the Aakash project along with the IITs. The tenders for production of the next version of Aakash will soon be floated; HCL has already expressed its interest in bidding for the project.

The cost of the new tablet is expected to remain the same (around $ 49), even as its quality is expected to improve significantly. The price is expected to fall even further as the demand for the tablet increases and the government moves closer to its target of providing a tablet to every child of the country.

The new tablets are also expected to carry the “Made In India” tag as the project becomes completely indigenous. To this front, three new IITs have now been involved.

Aakash 2 is expected to be out by April this year. Whether that deadline is met amidst all the controversy, is another matter entirely.

India has introduced the world's cheapest tablet PC: the "Aakash," priced at $35. The tablet is the result of a collective social innovation exercise by a group of students and professors at the Indian Institute of Technology who designed the specifications for Aakash and passed it on to a manufacturer for mass production. The group is now working on enhanced versions of the tablet, and a sleeker and more power-packed tablet is already gearing up for a launch.

The UK manufacturer DataWind has named that tablet Ubislate 7 for the international market. The tablet runs on Android 2.2 and has a 7-inch screen. It includes microSD slots and a USB drive. DataWind has initially priced the tablet at $35 for the government of India. The goal of the low-priced tablet is to make technology accessible to every Indian. The company is hoping to sell the upgraded versions of the tablet in the UK and US markets.

The earliest versions of Aakash were developed at the campus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Rajasthan. The project was a part of a government-supported undertaking to make computer technology affordable for Indian students. India's Education Minister, Kapil Sibal, has been a vocal supporter of this project.
The Aakash project at IIT is currently managed by one of its earliest developers, Professor P.K. Kalra along with Professors Sandeep Yadav and Anupam Gupta. They are leading a team of about 170 students who are involved in various aspects of this still growing project.

The team at IIT is progressing well with its development of more advanced versions of Aakash. Aakash 2 includes a superior processor, increased memory and higher onboard storage, according to Professor Gupta. It runs on Android's Gingerbread OS. Once the prototype is ready, the team will offer the design to the most competitive and capable bidding manufacturer. Professor Gupta says, "Our designs are ready. It depends on when the manufacturer is able to take up the order and finish the next one."

Amid complaints with regard to the quality of the low-cost ‘Aakash’ tablet PC, the government on Monday said it is hopeful of bringing out an upgraded version of the device, ‘Aakash-II’, by April this year.

“In order to cater to the huge demand, we need several manufacturers to manufacture Aakash. We are enhancing the specifications on the basis of feedback we have received from the first version of Aakash. So we want to make sure that the upgraded product caters to the need of the customers... We have involved ITI in order to upgrade it... We will be able to bring in Aakash-II by April,” HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said.

Accepting that differences have crept into the relationship between Aakash creator Datawind and the Human Resource Development Ministry, Mr. Sibal said, “We believe in resolving issues rather than highlighting them.”

According to ministry sources, Mr. Sibal is going to meet the IIT-Rajasthan Director, Datawind officials and the Special Secretary to the Human Resources Development Ministry on Tuesday.

Mr. Sibal had launched the world’s cheapest tablet, Aakash, last year with much fanfare. The device costing $35 (about Rs 2,000) was developed as part of the ‘The National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technologies (NME-ICT)’ of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).

“When we launched the Aakash first version, we did not know the feedback... We distributed to several students in order to get the feedback. With that feedback, we are now enhancing the specifications,” the minister said.

The government had committed itself to a long-term and full supply of 1 lakh units of the Aakash tablet from Datawind.

“As of now Datawind has delivered around 30,000 tablets and the rest 70,000 will also have the upgraded version of Aakash-II,” he said.

The government did not issue a Letter of Credit to the company after receiving test reports from IIT (Jodhpur) that raised certain issues with regard to the quality of the tablet PC.

The last letter of credit is going to expire in January.