The world's cheapest tablet PC, costing Rs 2,276, was launched today and it will be available at around half this price to students as part of government's programme to expand education through information technology.

The tablet PC, named Aakash, will cost the government Rs 2,276. It will be given to students after subsidising the price by up to 50 per cent, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said today while unveiling the 7-inch touchscreen device here.
“The price includes taxes and cost of transportation. The government will provide subsidy of 50 per cent to institutes buying it. It will cost around Rs 1,100-Rs 1,200 to institutes,” he said.

The government has also set an ambitious target of bringing down the cost of such device to as low as USD 10 (around Rs 500), the minister said. “As we will scale up manufacturing capacity, the prices will fall. My target is to provide tablet for USD 10 to our children in coming years,” Sibal added.

This tablet is for students and the government will start distributing at central and technical institutions. In 12th Five Year Plan, “we will provide these devices to students studying in class 9 onward up to class 12,” he said. An initial order of 1 lakh devices has been placed with device maker Datawind, the minister said. The procurement order will be scaled up later with an aim to bringing down prices further, he added.

“If 10 lakh pieces are ordered, then it will be priced at Rs 1,750 (cost to the government) which will include transportation cost and vendor's profit as well. So, I have fulfilled my promise of USD 35 tablet,” he said. Sibal said he will ask telecom vendor ITI to manufacture it and will seek support of other industry players to scale up the production and reduce costs.