India Readies Rs. 1,500 Tablet for a Field Trial

India Readies Rs. 1,500 Tablet for a Field Trial

Nachiket Mhatre, Oct 21, 2010 1657 hrs IST

The government floats tender for 1 lakh pieces; projects production of 1 crore pieces within a year

As reported earlier, the concept of a student centric, yet feature rich low-cost tablet seems finally primed for fruition. The Ministry of Human Resource Development, headed under Kapil Sibal, has issued a tender for 1 lakh pieces of the tablet.

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Rajasthan has been entrusted with the task of conducting the field trial. If successful, the numbers may swell further to 1 crore tablets. The price is expected to be around Rs. 1,500, which is way off the very optimistic Rs. 500 mark the HRD Ministry aimed for during conception. The tablet incorporates 2GB of RAM to run Android OS on a 7-inch screen. Connectivity consists of Wi-Fi with slots for 3G SIM cards as well.

The bid document lays down certain minimum requirements that the device is expected to satisfy, which include video web conferencing, multimedia content viewer, unzip tool, firmware upgradeability, Open Office suite compatibility and a media player capable streaming video.

This is in addition to basic tasks like Internet, wireless communication along with a cloud computing option and remote device management capability. The tender also calls for open source flash players that enable support for YouTube and other online video services. Let's just hope the kids don't restrict the tablet to Facebook and Shaktiman reruns on YouTube.

Image courtesy: IBN Live

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Rs. 1 500 Tablet tablet

Discussion Board

(7) Comments

Shashi

, Bangalore, on Nov 15, 2010 02:37 PM

What is the timeline - when this can become available ? HOw do I procure this - I am interested in supporting some rural children in karnataka ?

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joviton

,GOA, on Oct 21, 2010 06:52 PM

Next time try to make a Rs.500 cellphone with Wifi 3g Anroid and 12 Mp camera Omled Touch screen 4.5 inch 1Ghz snapdragon processor With 1 GB of Ram i know you'll can do it

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Rajeev

,Hyderabad, on Oct 22, 2010 11:08 AM

next time you learn to spell those thing correct :D

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Grammar

,Mumbai, on Oct 22, 2010 05:07 PM

LOL. It's AMOLED not Omled.

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hiren

,ahmedabad, on Oct 21, 2010 11:13 PM

how can i get one of those???...i wana try it...