Pranab launches advanced version of low-cost Aakash-2 tablet

The advanced version of low-cost tablet Aakash was launched here on Sunday by President Pranab Mukherjee. Coming at a price tag of Rs. 1,130 for students, the new version ‘Aakash 2’ — which will be made available to students of engineering colleges and universities to begin with — is now powered by a processor running at 1 GHz, has a 512 MB, a 7-inch capacitative touch screen and a battery working for three hours of normal operations. It has been developed under the aegis of IIT Bombay with the active support of Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC). Datawind is rolling out the device. “The price is Rs. 2,263 at which the government purchases the device from us. The government subsidises it by 50 per cent and it will be distributed to students at Rs. 1,130,” said Datawind CEO Suneet Tuli. Mr. Tuli said the government was also trying to encourage the State governments to chip in by subsidising it further so that the device could eventually be available to students free of cost. The first one lakh devices will be provided to students of engineering colleges and universities and subsequently these will be distributed to others. About 22 crore students will get the device across the country in the next five to six years. By coming Monday alone, 20,000 devices are expected to be given to the students. “The device, which can also run on the Linux operating system, does Aadhar authentication and controls a robot from a distant place,” said Human Resource Development Ministry officials. Keywords: Aakash 2, Aakash tablet, tablet computer, C-DAC, Datawind