Day: February 3, 2009

The Indian $10 Laptop — Revisited

[Follow up to the previous post.]

I suppose it should not come as any surprise that it is now being claimed that the $10 cost was a mis-statement and the actual cost is $100. And like the “$100” OLPC which actually costs twice as much, probably the Indian laptop will — if it ever is actually produced — cost anything between $200 to $400, at which point it would be pointless as currently laptops are being produced for around $200 a pop by many manufacturers. I think it is a safe bet that the government officials who continue to make their $10 claims are clueless about technology and about the complexity of building a complex machine.

The newspapers are reporting that the laptop will be unveiled today. A couple of reports even quote yours truly.
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Power and the Skoch Summit 2009

I was at the Skoch Summit 2009 Jan 22-23 held at the India Habitat in New Delhi. It was one of the better conferences that I have been to of late. Aside from the usual sponsors such as Microsoft and HP, consistent with the theme, “India: Challenges & Policy Responses,” it was co-organized by the Planning Commission, the Ministry of Human Resource Development, the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, the National Institute for Rural Development and the National Disaster Management Authority. So naturally the discussion panels were packed with lots of bureaucrats from these institutions.
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