The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry’s is working on an idea to develop laptops for students costing just Rs 400. Minister for State for Higher Education D Purandeshwari on Tuesday said the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and at the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai have been tasked with the project. “The Government aims to provide the $10 laptops to students and research in this direction is on,” the minister said along the sidelines of an e-learning conference here.Speaking at the inaugural session, Purandeshwari said the HRD ministry would soon launch a National Mission in Education through ICT. “In order to deliver the benefits of ICT enabled learning, the mission would focus on achieving a technological breakthrough by developing a low cost and low power consuming access device, making available free bandwidth, for education purpose, to every Indian, and to build a knowledge network between and within institutions of higher learning,” the minister said.The ministry had earlier rejected offers by international private firms to supply $100 laptops saying it was working on a model which would cost a tenth of the price. IITs and IISc, which had been identified as anchor institutions for the project, have since been entrusted with the task of research and development of cheap laptops. The mission would also work for creation of knowledge modules with right contents to address the personalised needs of learners.The minister said a lot more investment was needed in the higher education sector. While public spending on education was around 3.6 per cent of GDP, the allocation for higher education sector was only 0.37% of GDP, she added.
