After rejecting Nicholas Negroponte’s proposal of $100 laptops for school children, HRD ministry plan to build $10 laptop might turn true with two proposed designs but public sector undertaking Semiconductor Complex is also showing their interest to become a part of the project.
Until now, one laptop including labour charges is costing $47 but the ministry forecasts that the price will radically come down when the demand will rise to manufacture one million laptops. An official from HRD ministry said:
The cost is encouraging and we are hopeful it would come down to $10. We would also look into the possibility of some Indian company manufacturing the parts
The final year engineering student of Vellore Institute of Technology in conjunction with researcher from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore has proposed two designs to the ministry.
By keeping in view, Intellectual Property Rights of the two designer’s ministry has not released full details of designs except some major details. According to sources, these laptops will be developed on a single board to enable engineers to rectify the problems with ease.
The meeting between industry and academia will also take place in IISc, Bangalore, sometimes later this month to analyze two proposed designs and to invite more suggestions. Semiconductor Complex, a Chandigarh-based PSU has also told HRD ministry that they are also interested to be a part of this project but HRD ministry has also invited the company to get involved in the production of laptops.
The ministry formed six anchor groups to assist experts in critical areas and to remove regular blockages. Institutions like IITs and IISc are also selected as anchor institutions for the project and are assigned with different tasks regarding research and development of low-priced laptops.
Sources also reveal that it will take another two years to launch this $10 laptop breakthrough as a reality. According to one of the officials:
We do not want to rush into it. Many issues remain to be resolved like royalty to the designer after the design is patented. Prototyping would also take time. We would even conduct destructive testing and create a proper maintenance network
According to sources ministry also received proposals from some big multi national companies but none of them was willing to develop laptop with $10 cost tag.
Via: Timesofindia
