DataWind: IIT-R stabbed us in the back

Rattled by the controversies around delivery of Akash 2 aka UbiSlate7 and spat with IIT- Rajasthan and Bangalore-based Quad Electronics, DataWind has today said that they were very disappointed.

The ultra-low cost tablet manufacturer also reaffirmed that they would start delivery of Aakash2 within next couple of weeks. DataWind has been engaged with another subcontractor, and said that priority will be given to pre-paid customers.

DataWind chief Suneet Singh Tuli said that Quad-IIT-R drama led to chaos that impacted the timely delivery. “In Jan 2012, IIT-R has secretly signed MoU with Quad to create a competitive device,” he said.

The institute, Tuli said, on one hand asked DataWind imposes military-rugged test criteria, while on the other hand it forged alliance with their subcontractor Quad Electronics and does not follow any such criteria. It stabbed at back, he remarked.

“IIT-R has even plagiarized test criteria from HP rugged laptop criteria. Such a behaviour has hurt the reputation of IITs in India,” Tuli said. It’s unethical for IIT-R to float a secret tender that excluded DataWind, the company said.

Terming the relationship with IIT-R as unfortunate, Tuli confirmed that they have served legal notices to two of its professors. The institute, he said started engaging Quad privately during Oct-Nov, 2011. This, he said was the time when IIT-R rejected Aakash tablets.

The company had however asked the HRD ministry to intervene. The ministry in turn asked IIT-R to establish scientific test criteria and accept DataWind proposed upgrade. The manufacturer, government said 'was required to pre-test its product before shipment'. IIT-R, subsequently rejected the tests and certification from the independent agencies such as BVQI and ERTT.

The project has however now shifted to IIT-Bombay which is in the process to issue purchase order of 1 lac Akash2 to DataWind. IIT-B roped in government agencies- C-DAC and ITI to test the device. The NME-ICT (national mission on education through information communications technology) under the Ministry of HRD has showed its intention to procure 50 lac low-cost tablets during the current fiscal.

The company also informed that they were getting close to 40,000 calls a day against their capacity to receive 4,000 calls. We’ll catch in two weeks, though the delivery was initially planned by the March-end, Tuli informed. As a part of commercial launch, DataWind will be introducing next-generation UbiSlate7 series on April 26 and will announce support ecosystem.