PC rental service for rural India

Though the PC components and the computers have  become cheaper, the digital devices have not reached all the corners of India. A report from Times of India says that about 84% of villagers are unaware of the existence of the Internet medium. To increase the PC awareness among the rural India, Indian Government has taken few nice initiatives.  To bridge the digital divide,  Indian Government has launched One laptop per child project (200$) last year and announced the low cost tablet Sakshat (35$ approx) few months back.  Another much appreciable project from the Government is the PC rental service for rural India. Kudos to the Government. Hoping that these projects are not just for political gains.

PC rental service

A pilot program to be launched by the ministry of IT & communications. Under this program, computers specially built for rural areas will be deployed in five locations, and then rented out to citizens. “The cost may vary from R 15-20 per day. This model may remove the hindrance of affordability in buying computers . We are talking to various companies like Intel, HCL Infosystems and One Laptop Per Child Project,” a senior official at ministry of IT & communications. The pilot program would cost the government about 45 lakh. “It will also remove the problem of maintenance and repair which is a common problem in many areas. Besides the person can rent it only for the time power is available,” he added. Source: The Economic Times

Sakshat

Sakshat, which is expected to be launched on Jan 11, 2011, is powered by Android. It will be available in three different screen sizes of 5-inches, 7-inches and 9-inches. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi, a USB port,  fixed Ethernet capability and a video out. The device will also have a MiniSD card slot, SIM card slot and will have an on-board storage of 2GB memory. Educational software developed at IIT will also be available on the device. Colleges all over India have already expressed interest over this device. However, the experts have expressed concerns over the quality of the device at this low cost and have said that it is practically impossible to build good devices at this cost.

-- Varun