The Indian Minister of State for Human Resource Development announced that the OLPC scheme (One laptop per child) while good was still too expensive for Indian consumers. He further announced that the nation is on track to produce the worlds cheapest laptop - one that shall cost only 10$ USD and research is currently going on for the same.
While taken alone, these comments would mean nothing , since Indian politicians like their brethren around the world love to make fancy promises ; its the ones who are doing the research that make us believe that there is more to this story.
Research is being carried out by the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras. The laptop is being touted as a groundbreaking device which would solve the problems of low computer literacy and e-learning not only in India, but also the world over according to the minister. The laptop is already being compared to the way the Tata Nano is poised to revolutionalise the automotive industry.
The cheapest laptop tag is currently enjoyed byt he OLPC project which has the price tag of 188$ USD. Support for OLPC was refused by the Government of India but is still going on as a pilot project in partnership with a private company.