$10 laptop launched

So much of media hype about $10 laptop and people and scientific communities have had lot of expectations. Although, the $10 laptop prototype became a laughing stock when it was inaugurated at the abode of Lord Balaji, Tirupathi.

VIT, IISc, IIT, UGC and MHRD are involved in conception and design of the $10 laptop project. The entire world eagerly waited for what is dubbed as the Nano laptop or nanotop, and at the inauguration MHRD disclosed that the price of the laptop came around 20 clams but reassured that it could be brought down to $10 with mass scale manufacturing. But the laptop-like computing device with a 2GB memory did disappoint the so-called netizens.

The nano laptop measured 10 inches by length and 5 inches by width and comes with a hard disk and relevant eBooks and eJournals. People including media were taken aback when a computing device was unveiled saying it’s the $10 laptop. Other details such as screen, storage and processor are kept still a secret by MHRD. However, I still appreciate the efforts. Did you know that this computing device consumes just about 2 watts of energy? Considering the fact that villages are encountered with frequent power cuts, isn’t this an amazing work?

The $10 laptop or nanotop will be one that would bridge the rural and the urban divide at least after a few more tweaks. What makes me feel bad is we have been under utilizing so many resources. In fact, under the government scheme Sarva Siksha Abhiyan all government schools are equipped with computers as well as Internet connectivity. The misery is that there is no knowledgeable staff to educate the kids and so the computers have become as good as junkies. I didn’t want to spew this in ridicule, but our government does poor management of so many resources. The existent equipments itself is enough should they be utilized by sharing and cooperation to bridge the gap between rural and urban divide.

I know the $10 nano laptop is only the start of a big dream and that we can realize it in the real sense to every student with Internet connectivity.

People who are ridiculing (they must be obviously using the high-street laptops and using it for otherwise purposes like games) this $10 laptop endeavor must remember one thing. The main objective of the project is to bring forth an educative laptop that could be afforded by every Indian student, and the laptop is solely for education and not for entertainment and it doesn’t require an AMD or an Intel processors or even a duo core or multi core technology. The project may not have met the expectations, but is definitely one to go in the right direction (after all laptop didn’t come all of a sudden, it came after so many years of desktop) to erase digital ignorance and illiteracy amongst the rural masses. Media should join hands in commending the efforts not pooling ridicule.

I appreciate and applaude the efforts of students who are involved in the project aimed to bring down digital illiteracy in just Rs. 500.