[UgaBYTES] Now, $10 laptop for students, Tuesday, 29 July, 2008

[ahmed digital]

dear friends
it is amazing wow wow a laptop for 10$

http://www.eindia.net.in/2008/media_coverage.asp

*Govt plans laptops for students at Rs 400, Wednesday, July 30, 2008*

AGENCIES

NEW DELHI — Students across the country will be able to buy specially
designed laptops at affordable prices with the government planning to
provide them the gadget at around Rs 400. Research in this direction is
being already carried out at the Indian Institute of Sciences in Bangalore
and IIT-Madras to develop a special laptop at a cost of ten US dollars for
students to help them excel in studies.

"The government aims to provide 10-dollar laptops to students and research
in this direction is on," said Ms D Purandeshwari, Minister of State for
Human Resources Development here. The initiative has been taken by
government to enable students to make the most out of information technology
which is emerging as a catalyst for the country's socio-economic
development, she said.

Her announcement came at the inaugural session of 'e-India 2008,' an
international conference of IT solution providers and government agencies to
facilitate practices of e-governance and digital learning in the country.
Holding that information and communication technology will play a key role
in the country's education system, the minister said, "In the coming years,
thrust will be on using ICT to strengthen various mode of learning both in
school and at higher education levels.

"To deliver the benefits of ICT in the learning process, a new scheme
'National Mission in Education through ICT' will be launched with the
objective of providing connectivity to the learners to the 'knowledge world'
in cyberspace," she said.

Ms Purandeshwari said that efforts would be made to make the students
'netizens' in order to enhance their self-learning skills and develop their
capabilities for online problem solving.

The new mission would also focus on developing a very low cost and low power
consuming access device, making available free bandwidth to every Indian for
education purpose, the minister said. A compendium 'Towards a National
Policy on ICT in School Education' was also released at the function.

The compendium is a compilation of feedbacks collected in the process to
formulate the 'National Policy on ICT in School Education,' an initiative
taken by the Department of School Education and Literacy in HRD ministry.
Several IT experts, educationists and government officials from more than 40
countries will take part in the three-day conference to discuss over the
modalities of using ICT in e-governance, digital learning, e-health,
e-agriculture and municipal functioning.

URL: http://www.navhindtimes.com/articles.php?Story_ID=073044



*Now, $10 laptop for students, Tuesday, 29 July, 2008*

NEW DELHI: After displaying its prowess in developing the world's cheapest
car, India is on track to rolling out the world's cheapest laptop computer
that could cost as low as $10, a top official said here on Tuesday.

Minister of State for Human Resource Development D Purandeswari said
research was being conducted to develop the laptop, especially for use by
students, which will cost all of $10.

"Research in this direction is being already carried out at the Indian
Institute of Science, Bangalore and the Indian Institute of Technology
(IIT), Madras," she told the e-India annual summit on information and
communication technologies.

The laptop, when produced, will prove to be a breakthrough device that could
solve the problems of low computer literacy and e-learning not only in
India, but also the world over, she added.

Earlier this year, India's Tata Group had unveiled the "Nano" that was
touted as the world's cheapest car costing all of $2,500 and the
announcement had grabbed global headlines.

The cheapest laptop available today is at least 10 times costlier. The "Xo"
sold by the Massachusetts-based non-government organization 'One Laptop Per
Child Foundation' sells for $188.

The foundation, started by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
alumnus Nicholas Negroponte, aims to supply the low cost machines to the
governments of developing countries for them to source it to school
children.

But the Indian government rejected the offer in 2006, calling it an
experimental model.

"India must not allow itself to be used for experimentation with children in
this area," the human resource ministry had stated then.

However the project was taken up by the Reliance Anil Dhirubahi Group to be
implemented as a pilot in Maharashtra's Khairat village.

Under this initiative, Reliance Communications will provide net
connectivity, backbone, logistics, and support to the OLPC initiative. "The
initiative aims at covering over 25,000 towns, and 6,00,000 villages in the
country by 2008."

-- 

ahmed mahmoud mohamed eisa
www.gedarefcity.org
Gedaref digital city organization (GDCO) is NGOs established early 2005. It
is a big telecentre in Sudan. It is a non political organization but it has
a partnership with the government, other national & international
organizations, donors and supporters based on the benefit of the community.
It is the first digital city in Sudan . It is the winner of information for
development award (i4d 2007 awards) in e-India august 2007 at new Delhi. It
has strong partnership with the great people of Eindhoven through the
digital city of Eindhoven (DSE).