IIT-Mumbai, IIT-Madras, IIT-Kanpur to join Aakash team

After a brief spell of distress, here's something that will surely make Aakash tablet enthusiasts smile. The HRD Ministry, who are the visionaries of the Aakash project, now aim to make the tablet more indigenous and cheaper. To achieve this, they now plan to expand their team to accomodate better expertise. The Economic Times, now confirms that, in addition to IIT-Rajasthan, the HRD ministry is in plans of inviting IIT-Mumbai, IIT-Madras and IIT-Kanpur to join the Aakash project; a move the ministry believes should make the tablet more Indian, and cheaper, too. Surely, the ministry wants nothing to go wrong with the upcoming version of the Aakash tablet. It is, without a doubt, working towards improving the quality, enhancing the quantity, while still keeping it low in price.

Bigger plans in store!

All said and done, the ministry is largely looking at making the Aakash tablet almost 90 percent Indian. As is quite evident, most of Aakash components, like its processor have been sourced from abroad, which in turn affects the pricing of the tablet. If the ministry manages to make the tablet indigenous, then we are surely looking at an even cheaper tablet. Considering that it is not going to be easy, the government has chartered the plan over the course of two years.

This is definitely, good news, since it spells better times ahead. The tablet has been undergoing a rough phase. Not only is it finding it difficult to maintain a firm ground over manufacturers, specifications, among other things, reports only show that their trust in the product is slowly dwindling. Over the course of weeks, we have been reporting as to how both Datawind and IIT-Rajasthan bickered over their differences on the tablet's specifications. This news was followed by IIT-Rajasthan losing its Aakash deal, and Datawind receiving an extension by the government only till March. The government certainly dreams big for the success of its sequel to the Aakash tablet, and only this explains a hefty order of 22 crore tablets. Now, in addition to Datawind, the government is also looking forward to contributions from PSUs, whom they believe are better equipped to handle such an order.

To know more about the Aakash tablet, click here.