$10 Laptop? Really?

I was ecstatic while reading about $10 laptop at International Business Times. After all, this $10 laptop will spread the use of technology and internet to common man . We were going to challenge MIT who developed a laptop at the cost of $100. India showcases low-cost laptop to bridge digital divide

The low-cost device, developed jointly by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai, and Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, for the human resource development (HRD) ministry, is aimed at bridging the digital divide and making access to computer literacy affordable to the masses.

I often think that when I want the advice of a grandmother or grandfather or parents, internet often fill the vacuum as far as information is concerned. But what I read today about $10 laptop?
Govt’s much-awaited $10 laptop turns out be a joke

The talk of the “invention” had raised expectations of bridging the technological divide between rural and urban India. Talking to TOI, a Professor from Sri Venkateswara University said (on the condition of anonymity), “How can just a computing device bridge the digital divide and make access to computer literacy affordable to the masses? Where will poor students get computers to jack this gizmo with? Will MHRD provide computers and internet connectivity in rural and remote areas? There is no clarity among the officials themselves,” he said.

I think as long as the HRD Minister Arjun Singh’s image is intact as Social Equality Guru and his party’s “prototype” is unchallenged as “secular”, our image in international community as buffoons (with due apology to buffoons) hardly matters! Jai Ho $10 laptop!