Hi friends,
OpenOffice will be available to more than 11 million Indian Kids next
year.
"It can not only support video-web conferencing facility, but also
boasts of several other latest features -- multimedia content viewer
(pdf, docx, ods, ... , computing capabilities such as Open Office, ...."
(
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/An-IIT-IISc-designed-laptop-for-just-Rs-1500/articleshow/6202207.cms
)
Keep it up Guys.
Thank you volunteers and Oracle!
Best regards,
Paul
http://news.google.co.in/news/more?pz=1&cf=all&ncl=dMzfZnDvUIn_zgMgE51SLnwNfh5jM&topic=t
NEW DELHI: More than five years after it was conceived by then
education secretary Sudeep Banerjee to take on Nicholas Negroponte's
$100 laptop and one-and-half years after his demise, HRD minister Kapil
Sibal on Thursday unveiled access-cum-computing device priced at Rs
1500 or $35 for students but can be eventually owned by public at
large.
The sleek-looking device -- a cross between I-Pad and tablet PC and
charged by an equally sleeker solar panel -- is designed by experts at
IIT, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras and Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore. The upper price limit for the device is pegged at $35.
HRD ministry has made an open invitation to one and all to come up with
more variants that fulfills specifications spelt out by it. The
ministry has set up several separate teams, which are involved in
bringing out their prototypes. In the next few months -- by then more
innovations will emerge and even price can come down to $20 or $10 ---
the ministry will issue an international expression of interest for
manufacturing of these devices. "Initially manufacturing might be done
in Taiwan or some other place but eventually it will be done in India,"
Sibal said. He said there are already enough offers for lower price.
The $35 price, he said, is inclusive of cost of manufacturing abroad.
However, the cost of the solar panel has not been factored into the
price yet. The ministry is in talks with a company to bring down the
cost of solar panels.
One reason for the low cost -- apart from the falling prices of chip --
is the sheer number of students who will get this device. Under Sarva
Shiksha Abhiyan alone, there are more than 11 crore children, who are
the likely receipients. Add to that lakhs of aided and unaided schools
in the primary and secondary sector. Even university student can use
the machine. At the current price point of $35, Sibal said, there would
be 50% subsidy toeducational institutions, which will effectively bring
down the cost to only Rs 750. The initial order will be for no less
than one lakh laptops.
Based on Open Source, the device does not have a hard-drive. It can not
only support video-web conferencing facility, but also boasts of
several other latest features -- multimedia content viewer (pdf, docx,
ods, adp, xls, jpeg, gif,png, bmp, odt, zip, AVCHD, AVI, AC3),
searchable Pdf reader, unzip tool for unzipping files, computing
capabilities such as Open Office, SciLab for printing support, media
player capable of playing streamed along with stored media files, USB
port etc.
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