$100 Laptop | Rubbished by HRD
Published by Mysorean on Friday, July 28, 2006 at 8:53:00 pm.
Quoting an article from the ToI dated 25 July 2006:
"...According to the project plan, the Central government is supposed to foot the entire bill, which is $100 per laptop for one million pieces. The project was floated by MIT.
Complete with technical problems pointed out by IIT, Madras, pedagogical suspicions raised by NCERT and first-hand experience of a senior HRD official who found that the laptops have not even crossed the prototype stage, Banerjee had said that OLPC "may actually be detrimental to the growth of creative and analytical abilities of the child"...."
They are talking about the Nicholas Negroponte's $100 Laptop. Probably he hasn't done whatever is required by the Government. Otherwise, would Rs. 450 crore ever be wasted by getting into newsprint?
Another interesting part of the article is the last paragraph which says:
"...The HRD official also said that an OLPC-like project has already been started by an Indian company which has supplied 50,000 laptops to South Africa at a price of $200. "Indian companies are not lagging behind. They may need more encouragement," he said."
This Indian company must be either Novatium or Encore Software. Whoever it is, if the HRD official is truthful then let's hope this is the first success for Indian Hardware Industry. Beating Negroponte's well-publicised (probably over-hyped too!) $100 Laptop venture is not easy.
"...According to the project plan, the Central government is supposed to foot the entire bill, which is $100 per laptop for one million pieces. The project was floated by MIT.
Complete with technical problems pointed out by IIT, Madras, pedagogical suspicions raised by NCERT and first-hand experience of a senior HRD official who found that the laptops have not even crossed the prototype stage, Banerjee had said that OLPC "may actually be detrimental to the growth of creative and analytical abilities of the child"...."
They are talking about the Nicholas Negroponte's $100 Laptop. Probably he hasn't done whatever is required by the Government. Otherwise, would Rs. 450 crore ever be wasted by getting into newsprint?
Another interesting part of the article is the last paragraph which says:
"...The HRD official also said that an OLPC-like project has already been started by an Indian company which has supplied 50,000 laptops to South Africa at a price of $200. "Indian companies are not lagging behind. They may need more encouragement," he said."
This Indian company must be either Novatium or Encore Software. Whoever it is, if the HRD official is truthful then let's hope this is the first success for Indian Hardware Industry. Beating Negroponte's well-publicised (probably over-hyped too!) $100 Laptop venture is not easy.
