500 rupee laptop

newyorkdude

New Member

• Feb 3, 2009

• #1

I found an article in a British news source today (link: India set to follow cheap car with ?7 laptop - Times Online ) claiming that tmrw a group will unveil a 500 rupee (US$10, 7 British pounds) laptop. If that happens, and if this laptop becomes popular, computer use and the value of domain names in India will go through the roof.

Interestingly, I found this article in the British media, but found no reference to this story in Indian media (maybe I didn't search well enough).

 

Ceres

New Member

• Feb 3, 2009

• #2

NewYorkDude, tomorrow's launch ceremony should be interesting! I wonder how powerful these laptops will be. There's an official press release from the Government of India: PIB Press Release

Will these laptops only be available to those who are part of India's education system? It's not quite clear to me.

 

Jeff

Administrator

Staff member

• Feb 3, 2009

• #3

Excellent find - and very exciting!

 

Ceres

New Member

• Feb 5, 2009

• #4

Aaahh too bad, it turns out it's not a laptop. It's something similar to a storage device.

There must have been a lot of miscommunication between the time of the official announcement and the unveiling of the device!

 

Last edited by a moderator: Feb 5, 2009

newyorkdude

New Member

• Feb 5, 2009

• #5

Very disappointing.

I read the linked article and have two questions:

1) the product was unveiled at Tirupati. Does that mean everyone involved voluntarily shaved their heads clean?

2) at the end of the article it says the cost is approximately equal to the cost of books for a student for a year. Are textbooks that cheap in India? In America these days textbooks for a college student run into the hundreds of dollar per year. Maybe American college students should move to India for a cheaper education, sort of like contemporary medical tourism to India.

 

Ceres

New Member

• Feb 7, 2009

• #6

newyorkdude said:

1) the product was unveiled at Tirupati. Does that mean everyone involved voluntarily shaved their heads clean?

Click to expand...

I'm guessing no heads were shaven as the ceremony was held at a university in Tirupati and not at a temple. Is it compulsory for those who do visit a temple in Tirupati to shave their heads?

newyorkdude said:

2) at the end of the article it says the cost is approximately equal to the cost of books for a student for a year. Are textbooks that cheap in India?

Click to expand...

I agree that does sound very cheap! Perhaps another INForum member can enlighten us with an answer?

 

newyorkdude

New Member

• Feb 7, 2009

• #7

I'm not expert on when people shave their heads in Tirupati, but I know for sure that many people do. It is a religious act whose meaning I do not know off the top of my head (no pun intended). My regular vegetable seller when I was in Bangalore (a man in his late 20s/early 30s) shaved his head there. I do not know the fate of the hair, but I am aware that some of it winds up in wigs. Whether that use of the hair is intentional/legitimate or not I do not know.

 

Ceres

New Member

• Feb 7, 2009

• #8

That's very interesting, thanks NewYorkDude.

It would be nice if between now and when the product is ready, the 'storage device' magically turns back into the much-anticipated 'laptop'...

 

newyorkdude

New Member

• Feb 7, 2009

• #9

I just got the following info: "The cheap computing device named "Sakshat" is developed by the students of Vellore Institute of Technology and a researcher from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India."

If, in fact, the name is Sakshat, I am afraid the name would be subject to a great deal of low humor in America. I do not want to besmirch this board by suggesting any quips. Use your own imagination.

 

S

sanju123

New Member

• Feb 7, 2009

• #10

Shakshat is nothing more than just a computing device which can store information that can be accessed by connecting it to laptop- a simple device but why it was hyped as a laptop no one really knows.