With no $10 laptop in sight, India buys 250,000 OLPCs (arstechnica.com)

[eppur_se_muova]

India has purchased 250,000 XO laptops. This move will boost the One Laptop Per Child project and could help the deflating effort get back on its feet.

By Ryan Paul | Last updated April 27, 2009 8:41 PM CT

The government of India has signed an agreement with the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project and will purchase 250,000 of the organization's XO laptops. The machines will be distributed to students throughout the country. India's decision to embrace OLPC is a bit unexpected in light of the country's past antagonism towards the project.

OLPC is a nonprofit organization that builds low-cost education laptops to sell in bulk to governments of developing countries. The project, first unveiled in 2005, has faced many challenges and has been forced to significantly cut staff and reduce the scope of its vision. Despite these setbacks, the program is still marching on and continuing to sell units as it works on an updated model and an innovative next-generation version.

OLPC launched a pilot program in India in 2007 with 20 XO laptops at a school in Khairat-Dhangarwada village in the state of Maharashtra. Although the pilot program was successful, the country's Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) was highly skeptical about OLPC, and expressed concerns about the health implications of prolonged laptop use among students.

The MHRD later reversed its views about the health implications of youth computing and launched its own dubious program to build a competing $10 laptop. Unsurprisingly, the $10 laptop never materialized. When the country finally unveiled its highly ambiguous plans for its $10 "Sakshat" computing initiative earlier this year, it was revealed that the device would not be a laptop and would cost significantly more than $10 to produce.

India has finally decided to adopt OLPC after all, despite the government's previous skepticism and plans for building its own technology. PC World, which spoke with OLPC India CEO Satish Jha, reports that the laptops will be sent to 1,500 schools. Jha hopes to ship 3 million laptops in India this year. PC World also says that a small roll-out will be taking place in Sierra Leone, where a human rights group is paying to deploy 5,000 XO units.
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more: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/04/india-embraces-olpc-buys-250000-xo-laptops.ars

[chill_wind]

1. K & R.

The OLPC has been a very admirable concept. I remember checking them out a couple years ago and really marveled at the thought that went into the original design for kids and others in both dry,arid and rainy environments-- very rugged, well sealed against dust and rain for those who typically walk in all weather conditions to school, the convertible tablet style screen feature, the pull cord battery recharger etc. I wish them the best for their long term success.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

2. Hey! I've got a laptop that's a sakshat, too!

[chill_wind]

3. And the carry-case handle.

New model and cheaper price planned for 2010:

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/20804/?a=f