Friday, July 23rd 2010
Government of India Unveils Sakshat $10 Tablet PC for Students
The Government of India today unveiled the much talked about 10 Dollar Tablet PC for students. Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal unveiled the tablet which is initially priced at 1,500 Indian Rupees (US $30), but is expected distributed for 500 Rupees ($10) once manufacturing is streamlined. The device is named Sakshat (meaning "personification" in Sanskrit), and boasts of performance-grade hardware for a device of its class. It has a 10.5-inch multi-touch colour screen, ARM processor, 2 GB of memory, cloud storage, WiFi b/g and 10/100 Ethernet for connectivity with school networks, a highly-customised OS based on the Linux kernel, supporting Adobe Flash for online videos and interactive educational content, and a digital camera.
School curriculum will be distributed to students in an interactive format, as well as drive "e-classrooms" for live-streaming classes from eminent teachers to students from across the country. The device supports OpenOffice.org and open document formats, as well as Adobe PDF, and various multimedia formats. Sakshat was developed by students of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) from various IIT institutes across the country. As part of the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology, Sakshat will be backed by a network connecting 18,000 educational institutions and 400 universities.
Sources:
IBNLive, PCWorld India
School curriculum will be distributed to students in an interactive format, as well as drive "e-classrooms" for live-streaming classes from eminent teachers to students from across the country. The device supports OpenOffice.org and open document formats, as well as Adobe PDF, and various multimedia formats. Sakshat was developed by students of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) from various IIT institutes across the country. As part of the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology, Sakshat will be backed by a network connecting 18,000 educational institutions and 400 universities.
125 Comments on Government of India Unveils Sakshat $10 Tablet PC for Students
3,560,000,000,000 x .032= $113,920,000,000 spent on up to 1,173,108,018 people in India
14,260,000,000,000 x .053= $755,780,000,000 spent on up to 310,232,863 people in the USA
Not to mention the average age is younger in India than in the USA which increases the possibility of pulling from that pull of funds and spreading it thinner.
A good portion of modern schooling in the USA is now done online so paper and pens are not used but for a portion of classes. I don't feel stupid BTW. I am working on completing two engineering degree programs while working in the USA. :D
I don't blindly defend my country's image. If it fails to accomplish something, I am open to discussing ways we can work together to improve it. You have the power to change more in your community than I do since you are in your country's upper class.
Initiatives such as this and the Right to Education Act 2010 make sure Indians can do the same (work, study, earn more degrees).
I don't blindly defend my country's image, either. Right now it's far better than what you're making it out to be (or at least want to make it out to be).
You can start learning about how education is making India competitive from here:
www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-Global/Local%20Assets/Documents/Manufacturing/dtt_2010%20Global%20Manufacturing%20Competitiveness%20Index_06_28_10.pdf
Manufacturing is every economy's biggest sector (propels economy the fastest), so manufacturing competitiveness can be extrapolated on the economy's competitiveness for growth projections.
Cheap labor and an uneducated mass of people are always used as the "work horses" of developing nations in manufacturing. Is it because the people doing assembly line work are all educated. No. Education would make for a heavily automated manufacturing sector. Globalization and outsourcing create an equilibrium effect. The horribly desperate work force of a developing nation works for cheaper than those of a developed nation that provides well for its citizens. TBH with how service oriented the USA is, I am surprised to see them that high on the list. I guess that is just from expensive pens and notebooks. :p
A great measure of if a place is a good place to live or not is also wealth distribution and standard of living. Literacy rate is important but many developing country's skew that number as much as possible.
GOOD REPUTATION UNIVERSITIES
THE AMERICAN DREAM
common, I know USA isn't perfect but it isn't that bad...
I'll just quote the "India" (on why it's #2) text for you:
It used to be imperialism and now it is outsourcing capitalism. For extreme examples of my equilibrium effect read about how Nike creates factories and pulls out of impoverished nations. It is evil how they let them starve when they pull out but that is what India will face one day if they don't focus on having a more self sustaining economy. If they suddenly had no trade with other countries there would be a mass starvation as an extreme example. But if they effectively curbed their population growth it might not even be an issue. With current trends at a population growth rate of 1.376% and a population of 1,173,108,018 people in 2010.
You can refer to IMF's global cumulative current account figures for that.
The major two problems for China is pollution and feeding its populous. Its population growth is controlled and its need to feed such a large population can be completely covered by its investment in South America. The Transoceanic Highway is set to make buying food and trading with South America easier and China is set to use that as its "bread basket". So the only serious problem I see them facing is pollution but I don't have a solution for that other than better waste disposal methods in manufacturing.
How will India feed its populous and curb its population growth? I haven't seen any feasible plans on that subject. Have you? That is why I was wondering why they put effort into subsidizing this handheld device when those other impending problems seemingly aren't being addressed adequately. Maybe you can shed some light on that subject?
Is this truly a case of complete and utter sour lemons behind a very thin veil of Envy? Honestly, for shame on some people here, ridiculing a country's program to educate the masses because they themselves can't do it. Honestly, for shame.
omg apparently 2 Watts only o.O this would be awesome to have lol
You want to decrease the poor, educate them. What's the saying, give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, teach him how to fish and he'll eat for a life time. Or what ever it is.
This project a) educates the masses, and b) help reduce the number of poor.
And the definition of poor is different in India, just because they don't have a huge truck to drive them to and from their half acre house with 45 inch plasma tv and top of the range PC, XBOX does not make them poor.
Well done to the Indian government to produce such a powerful tool, I look forward to the day when they over take the west in terms of economic prowess.
I don't think we need to be sharing numbers and figures here either, its just a goverment taking a very good initiative to help brighten the future of India. I dont live in India but i do go there every now and then and we should also remember.... this is TPU, so we cant just conclude that India isnt doing anything else for the poor.. Just my opinion.
there are and this is one of them... This might keep the smart indians from leaving India
and imagine how much you can learn with this device... Prices in India are low enough to be able to live if all you family is healthy, now if the father is sick... That is another story o.O