Improved Aakash for Students at No Extra Cost

College students across India would get a new, improved and enhanced version of Aakash tablet without having the Government to pay any extra money.
The improved Aakash tablet will have three times faster processing speed and around 50% extra battery life.  All the new versions of tablets to be subsidized by the Government will now have to pass the new quality protocol based on the inputs received from around 600 students of IIT and other engineering colleges.
The HRD ministry had asked Datawind of Montreal-based Suneet S Tuli to supply one lakh Aakash tablets for around $50 each. In the initial lot, 600 tablets were given to students for testing.
IIT, Rajasthan, which had prepared the Aakash prototype cited several deficiencies in the tablet including short battery life, processor unable to handle multiple operations at a time and poor picture quality.
Datawind has already supplied 30,000 tablets by the time the report by the IIT came. The ministry held back the order and asked the firm to fix  the deficiencies. Ministry sources said the company was initially reluctant to upgrade the tablet without increasing the cost. However, it agreed when ministry threatened to cancel the order.
Tuli was not available for comments. A company spokesperson said the remaining 70,000 tablets would be supplied as per the pact.

 “Not only Aakash from Datawind but all future tablets will have minimum Aakash 2 specifications,”

said NK Sinha, additional secretary, HRD ministry.

Ministry officials said Datawind may not get order in future as it had violated the contract condition of providing the tablets first to the government before selling it in open market.