Another nail in the coffin before this Android tablet lives to fulfill the Indian kids’ dreams. Well, not exactly a nail in the coffin. The tablet might still be here, and at the price promised but the thing to note is how low the government can stoop to get bragging rights (and votes). The article elaborates how the IIT/IISC scientists weren’t even aware that such a “project” existed and they were invited to be a part of it just a month before Mr. Kapil Sibal unveiled the epitome of Indian innovation to the world media, telling everyone with gusto how it was a brainchild of India’s premier institutes backed by the revolutionary and modern government. How the low cost motherboard had been designed and fabricated by students where years of research by experts around the world had failed in projects like OLPC.
I’m ashamed of the government. Ashamed that everyone abroad now points at my country and calls us liars. Mr. Sibal, why couldn’t you just say that you scored a really nice deal to bring a really good education device to the Indian masses at a cheap price point? Why harp about the innovation and stuff when clearly there wasn’t any and the only price cut you and your government had brought on was through a bulk order and subsidies? Oh right!! Because $35 tablet doesn’t have much margins to siphon away any money from and the only place left to fulfill that gap is from “Research & Development” Money Quota.