India's failed-promises saga continues - $35 tablet cancelled
By siliconindia   |   Friday, 21 January 2011, 19:34 IST   |    17 Comments
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India's failed-promises saga continues - $35 tablet cancelled
New Delhi: The Indian Government has always disappointed people with its false hopes. Earlier in the beginning of 2009, Indian Government unveiled a $10 educational laptop which turned out to be a substandard flop receiving various negative views about it. Now it is $35 tablet's turn. The expected launch of $35 tablet, 'Sakshat' in the mid of January by the Indian Government is now delayed due to bank security issues. HCL which was to raise a security deposit of 60 Crore and could not do it for reasons unknown. A security deposit is always demanded by the Government on any tender. The proposal was made in June last year and the tender was given to HCL. Now a report states that the tender is cancelled. The question here is that why such a big technological company like HCL has denied raising a security deposit of 60 Crore, which it could have done very easily. Does HCL feel that $35 tablet cannot be manufactured according to the Government's specification at such a low cost? The proposal to launch $35 tablets which would run on Android OS was quoted the cheapest compared to the earlier version of OLPC XO which was launched at $100, was aimed for educational developments of children across U.S. and other developing countries. The government had also allotted $6.5 million for the so called 'ambitious project'. It is said that a re-advertisement for new tenders are issued already, but nothing can be found in the Government website and HCL also states that it has not been informed yet of the cancellation. There are a lot of speculations happening about the project. Earlier there were accusations regarding the product that it was not an Indian product and it is completely outsourced from China. Another aspect that has popped up regarding the pricing of the device as India has also proposed to import a few components from Taiwan and Korea. Though the device proposed at $35, exported out of India would cost about $124. Now the final actual pricing of the tablet is yet to be quoted. The Indian Government usually has a habit of building greater hopes and then finally shattering them to pieces. Now we have to wait and see whether the proposed $35tablet also would end up with same note as $10 educational laptop or according to a senior official "The sun will raise in 2011".

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