The dream lives

It started as a dare. When MIT Media Lab visionary Nicholas Negroponte promised to bring affordable computing to children in developing countries with the One Laptop Per Child project,Indias HRD ministry rejected the idea. We didnt need the largesse,because we had the smarts and economies of scale to make a $10 laptop,it claimed. Of course,Indias $10 boast was laughed off,especially after the ministry unveiled a pointless little device that would need a projector to be used,the price of which soared to $54 anyway.

Now,the unfazed HRD ministry has relaunched its computing-cum-access device,with help from IIT Kanpur,Kharagpur,Madras and the Indian Institute of Science,Bangalore. If nothing else,this further refined $35 device is a feat of ferocious cost-cutting (helped by the fact that hardware costs continue to fall the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively in an integrated circuit has doubled approximately every two years.) Entirely open-source based,it has a browser,a pdf reader,an open office suite,video-conferencing and multi-media capabilities which,if they all function adequately,means a lot in a time when most digital transactions are migrating to the Web. Of course,the same questions linger is a dinky personalised device the best way to ensure that all Indias children can keep up with the digital natives of their generation around the world? Can a simple infusion of technology bridge educational disparities?

But whether this remains an ego project or becomes widely used,the $35 device is a reminder of Indias own mojo. As Pranav Mistry (of the wondrous Sixth Sense wearable computing device) has said,unlike lavishly funded labs in the West,ingenuity in India is driven by the need to stretch every rupee technological experiment is tempered with a strict economy. More power to that.