A $100 netbook by IIT Bombay could take off, thanks to Digital India intiative

Digital India is an initiative to closely integrate the Government of India and its people. The aim of this initiative is to ultimately make government services accessible to citizens electronically. As a result, e-banking, e-commerce and e-services are getting the much needed attention from the government in terms of policies and investments. The latest beneficiary to the Digital India movement could well be projects by premier Indian institutions such as the IITs. According to a report in the Economic Times, IIT Bombay professor Kannan Moudgala that had developed a $100 netbook earlier this year as part of their work around the low-cost Aakash tablet project. The report quotes Prof Moudgala, the report adds, “I believe that if you’re serious about Digital India, we need to give computers to our children.” The $100 netbook isn’t the first low cost computing project. Earlier the Aakash tablet which was launched in 2011 didn’t work out well since vendors were unable to meet desired specifications under the tender issued. However, there is a more cautious approach with the netbook project as compared to the Aakash tablet project. Similarly the OLPC (One Laptop per child) project began with the dream of placing **a laptop in the hands of every child** in the developing world, but encountered hurdles that brought the project to a halt. In the case of the Aakash tablet, 1 lakh devices were commissioned. In contrast, only 1000 netbooks have been ordered for the project.