$10 (Rs 500) Laptop ‘Sakshat’ unveiled – India’s first low cost laptop

One of the most awaited projects – $20 laptop computer was formally unveiled Tuesday at Tirupati in India. However there are questions whether the “Sakshat” (as the device is called) can be made and sold at that price point. The officials responsible for the “Sakshat” laptop are promising it will be available for $10 six months after it goes into mass production. The laptop was created over several months in a cooperative effort involving government, academic, and commercial interests.

The Sakshat model scheduled for display in the sounth Indian city of Tirupati Tuesday has following specefications:

2 GB of memory (expandable)
Wi-Fi and fixed Ethernet capability
Consumes (just) 2 watts of power
Operating System: Linux

Next steps: The testing of produt need sto be done which will be done in next six months according to R.P. Agrawal India’s Higher Education Secretary – who has spearheaded the Sakshat project.

The education ministry has been deeply involved in developing the laptop and a curriculum for it. Indian media sources have reported that Macmillan, Tata McGraw-Hill, Prentice-Hall and Vikas Publishing have been working with the ministry to provide content and digital textbooks for the Sakshat. Some of the content will be available for free.

Added on February 5th 2009

It seems this much publicized laptop turned out to be just a computing device. The “laptop” turned out to be nothing more than a computing device along with a hard disk with e-books, e-journals and relevant educative material through the  “Sakshat” an educational portal. Looks like the officials in India are not sure of diffrence between a computing device and a laptop?

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