IIT Rajasthan responsible for procuring the Aakash tablets, for Rs 2276 each, under the billion dollar National Mission on Education, run by the Ministry of Human Resources & Development, is insisting for stringent test criterion such as shock and water resistance for Aakash 2 tablets.
Mr. Suneet Singh Tuli, CEO of Datawind- suppliers of Aakash Tablet, said such test criterion may result in a tablet costing over Rs 1 lakh. According to Mr. Tuli, US military specifications for an educational tablet will not make sense for Indian students.
Mr. Tuli is absolutely right what he says and he cannot be criticised for providing state-of-the art tablet for a meagre amount of Rs 2276. You cannot get moon for the price of peanuts.
Even expensive tablets like iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab does not have water-resistance features and how can one expect Aakash tablet, which is a base version of tablet having very low specifications to have the latest features.
IIT, Rajasthan should be practical and not insist for such specifications which cannot even be imagined at such low price. On the contrary, they should take undertaking from the suppliers that whatever specifications they are providing the device should run successfully those features.
I have serious doubt whether Aakash tablet will work successfully because it is Government of India procurement at very low price. I do hope the concerned Ministry, which is responsible for procurement, will not release the full payment to the supplier of this tablet and sufficient amount should be kept on hold and should be released after successful performance of the tablet for few months.
Hope somebody must have thought about this and made the contract accordingly!
Once upon a time I was waiting to launch the Aakash Tab .. But now people including me don’t want it.
Don’t think that they can make it work, with such low cost.
Anyone interested in buying Aakash 2, follow this link [Link removed – No relation to article]