Govt launches first made-in-India tablet-Aakash

October 5, 2011 will be remembered as a historic day for India as well as for ICT. On that day, Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal unveiled the ultra low-cost computing/internet device, Aakash priced at $35 (Rs 1,750) at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi. This device has been made by Datawind, in collaboration with IIT Rajasthan. Datawind has designed, developed and manufactured it locally in India. Under National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NME-ICT), Datawind will supply 100,000 Android based tablets at an all-inclusive price of Rs 2,250 per unit (inclusive of all taxes, levies, and charges like freight and insurance, servicing and documentation).

However, government is offering 50% subsidy to the students and offering at price point of Rs 1,750 per unit to post-secondary students across India. Aakash is a 7" Android 2.2 touch screen tablet that has an HD video coprocessor for a high-quality multimedia experience and core graphics accelerator for faster application support. On the sidelines of the launch, Sibal said, "In the first phase, we have ordered for 1 lakh tablets. Our ultimate goal is that in the coming years, this tablet should cost less than $10."

According to Suneet Singh Tuli, CEO, Datawind, "The intent behind Aakash was to start the price war and make it viable to the mass market. In this project, our core challenge was to bring down the cost and offer it as the world's cheapest tablet. With government's support, we have been able to full this dream. Aakash is being produced at our Hyderabad plant, and all the 800 core components are being imported from various countries like China, South Korea, and the US."

Tuli further added, "Aakash is a profitable venture for us and we are not losing out money and margin on this. Now, we are working on putting in free of charge 90,000- 100,000 units of GPRS modem in the tablets to allow internet connectivity in rural areas. Soon, government will add this specification in future generation product. Moreover, we will continue to bring down the price and looking at the modalities to bring it at $10." Besides Aakash, Datawind will also be introducing its own tablet, UbiSlate around end of November, 2011 at less than Rs 3,000 including 12-month warranty. Internet access across mobile networks will be priced at Rs 99 for 2GB. Vijendra K Gupta, VP, CSD and operator relation, Datawind said, "For our Ubislates, we have been approached by many IT and telecom distributors, but we have not finalized it yet. Currently, we are gearing up our team to meet the demand coming from India. Moving ahead, export of tablets is also in our charter."

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