AKASH TO BE SHOWCASED BY INDIA IN U.N.

The Hindu The supercheap Aakash tablet computer, manufactured by DataWind

 India, which assumed this month’s rotating Presidency of the Security Council, will showcase its low-cost Aakash tablet at the United Nations, highlighting the country’s innovation involved in the “most competitively priced” tablet computer.

India’s Permanent Representative to the U.N. Hardeep Singh Puri said a presentation on the tablet will be held on November 28 at the world body’s headquarters here to which UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will be invited.

Suneet Singh Tuli, CEO of Canada-based Datawind, which had won the Indian government’s tender for making and supplying the tablets, will also be present on the occasion.

Aakash has been “described as the most competitively priced tablet computer by an Indian-origin entrepreneur,” Mr. Puri said at a news conference on Friday to outline the Council’s monthly agenda under India’s presidency.

He said while the tablet would be called “frugal innovation” in UN terminology, it is a “competitively priced innovation.”

Later talking to PTI, Mr. Puri said the Indian mission to the UN took the initiative to showcase the tablet at the world body and other UN member states as well as media persons will be invited to the event.

Mr. Tuli would make a presentation to the UN audience on Aakash, which was launched in October last year by the Indian government to make available computing devices to students at subsidised rates.

The Indian mission intends to distribute a limited number of Aakash tablets to some member states.

Datawind had won the tender in 2010 to supply one lakh Aakash tablets for a price of around $49 per unit. The project had run into controversy following the Indian Institute of Technology at Rajasthan rejecting the devices manufactured by Datawind.

A new version of the tablet PC, featuring one Ghz processor, four-hour battery time, capacitive screen and Android 4.0 operating system, is expected to be launched in India on November 11.

The Indian mission will also organise a cultural event at the UN on November 26 featuring the Shahi qawwals, who will be flying in from Ajmer for a Sufi music concert at UN on occasion of India’s presidency.