It feels to great to let you know that India has taken one of the most significant cyber leaps by announcing $10 laptops to improve the computer consciousness among people and gen Y. I hope you remember OLPC. The MIT driven non profit based program that had turned many eyes when they declared that if you provide them with 200$ then you will get one laptop and one will go to a needy child for his education. This program proposes to top that on price and as well as productivity with 2GB of RAM, Wi-Fi and expandable hardware.

This whole project, named sakshat was met by some of the premier institutions of India, namely, students of Vellore Institute of Technology, scientists in Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore , IIT-Madras and etc.

As per economictimes reports,

The mission has two major components . One, content generation through its portal ‘Sakshat’, and two, building connectivity along with providing access devices for institutions and learners. In this context, government would give Rs 2.5 lakh per institution for 10 Kbps connection and subsidise 25% of costs for private and state government colleges

If this happens then almost 18000 schools in India and 400 universities will be inter connected and millions of people will get to use the high end laptops for just INR 500! One key point is to spread and use e- learning as a source of education.

We wish them all the luck as we eagerly await the project to be implemented which will benefit millions of Indians.