A faster, upgraded version of Aakash tablet -- touted to be the world's
cheapest -- would be launched in April without any increase in price,
Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal said.
Sibal
said during Question Hour in Lok Sabha that Datawind will supply one
lakh high speed tablets with a longer battery life and better screen.
"These
higher specifications which include 700 MHz Cortex A8 processor,
3200mAH battery with three-hour usage time and a capacitative
touchscreen have been necessitated to overcome the initial difficulties
observed in the devices," he said.
The first phase of one lakh
tablets were targeted for students in higher technical education
institutions so as to further ascertain technical feedback on its
operation and usability, the minister said.
To demands from
members for extending the distribution of tablets to school students,
Sibal said the same would be made available when the proposed National
Mission of Education through ICT for Schools got necessary funds.
He
said once the production capacities are built up, norms for
distribution with an aim to prioritise empowerment of students,
especially from disadvantaged and marginalised sections of society,
through this low cost access-cum computing device would get developed.
