The government is going ahead with plans for a new and improved low-cost Aakash tablet for students to be priced under $25 (Rs.1,500)

 

The 7-inch touchscreen tablet Akash IV will have a 1 gigabyte (GB) memory and 4 GB of storage capacity with 32 GB MicroSD card support and weigh less than 500 grams.

 

Aakash is a series of Android-based tablet computers promoted as a learning tool by the  Human Resource Development ministry. The cost of basic version for a student was around $35 (Rs.2,100). 

 

The first version was launched in October 2011. It was aimed at linking 25,000 colleges and 400 universities as part of an e-learning programme of the country.

 

The previous editions of Akash were manufactured by Datawind. For Akash IV, the government is looking to collaborate with multiple manufacturers and vendors for developing Akash IV.

 

 –Indo-Asian News Service