[gui-talk] Fwd: India has developed the world's cheapest computer

[Steve Pattison]

This computer sounds interesting particularly for people who are poor
and living in countries where there is widespread poverty but the
question that isn't answered in this article is can the computer be made
accessible.  -Steve.

From: the Desk of Mr. Malcolm nemoy.malcolm at gmail.com
To: Technology list for the Blind and Vision Impaired
blindtech at blindtech-list.info

NEW DELHI | Fri Jul 23, 2010 8:43am EDT

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India has come up with the world's cheapest 
"laptop,"
a touch-screen computing device that costs $35.

India's Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal this week unveiled
the low-cost computing device that is designed for students, saying his
department had started talks with global manufacturers to start mass
production.

"We have reached a (developmental) stage that today, the motherboard, its
chip, the processing, connectivity, all of them cumulatively cost around
$35, including memory, display, everything," he told a news conference.

He said the touchscreen gadget was packed with Internet browsers, PDF 
reader
and video conferencing facilities but its hardware was created with
sufficient flexibility to incorporate new components according to user
requirement.

Sibal said the Linux based computing device was expected to be introduced 
to
higher education institutions from 2011 but the aim was to drop the price
further to $20 and ultimately to $10.

The device was developed by research teams at India's premier 
technological
institutes, the Indian Institute of Technology and the Indian Institute of
Science.

India spends about three percent of its annual budget on school education
and has improved its literacy rates to over 64 percent of its 1.2 billion
population but studies have shown many students can barely read or write 
and
most state-run schools have inadequate facilities.

Regards Steve
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