The specifications for the fourth version of low-cost tablet PC Aakash are expected to be finalised by the Government by this month.The Aakash project - low-cost computing device at subsidised rate for students - was the brain child of Kapil Sibal, who was then the Telecom Minister.
The project hit rough weather when IIT-Rajasthan, the nodal agency for the project, rejected the tablet for not meeting performance criteria and the project had to be shifted to IIT-Bombay.
“The draft of the specifications for the fourth version of Aakash has been prepared, but it still has to be placed before a committee formally. We are waiting for a suitable date to do that,” said J Satyanarayana, secretary, department of Electronics and IT (DEITy).
He added that the specifications have been designed keeping in mind the current technological developments and also how to keep the cost under check.
“We should not add so many features so that the cost will go beyond,” he said. The first version of Aakash was rolled out in October 2011. The second version was launched last year. Canadian company DataWind had bagged a contract to supply one lakh tablets.
“Our interest is to finalise the technical specifications at this stage and notify these specifications. Promote domestic manufacturers of such tablets so that electronics manufacturing is given a priority under the electronics policy,” Satyanarayana said.
Although no domestic players have shown interest to set up Aakash tablets manufacturing facility in the country so far. “But once we notify the specifications probably more proposals will come.”