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The low-cost computing device that the HRD minister Kapil Sibal has
promised—with the unveiling of a prototype accompanying the
announcement—not surprisingly, has caught the attention of
the entire computing community globally. It has its fair share of
supporters and critics who have described it as "the future of
computing", "a sick joke", and many things in between.
Sure, there have been
such attempts
in the past; not any of them has come too far. But what has given some
credibility to the claim is the success of Nano. India has enhanced its
image as a serious innovator of low cost alternatives.
However, most commentators, have been missing the point. The focus is
too much on the prototype, as there is more direct comparison possible
there. But forget not, this has not come from a company. A company,
especially if it is listed in the stock market, cannot afford to sell a
dream. But that is what the job of a statesman is. And considering that
it has come from someone who has taken radical steps in education
reforms—by taking a path that was being discussed for decades
but on which no one dared to tread.
The minister said two things—only one was his dream is to
make a PC available to the students at $35. What the commentators have
missed—possibly intentionally—is that he did
declare that at present, it costs $47. If you are not bound by the
definition that a PC is a PC only if it has x86 processors, such
“computing” devices are available even today. Just
take out the two features of use of solar power and 2GB
RAM—those devices are already there. The market is flooded
with Chinese phones with touch screen and multimedia capability that
cost around the same. Applications will come if there are
credible platforms.
What we need to do is to separate the two announcements—the
idea of the $35 PC and the prototype that he displayed. The first is a
dream. The second is yet another experimentation.
There are many ways to bring the cost of a device down: a fundamental
technology break-through, tight overall cost readjustment with good
should cost modeling, government subsidies, and local manufacturing.
There is no law that says they should be either or. And the
government has all the four in its disposal. It can encourage the first
one; it can more actively drive the second one; it can just decide on
the subsidies and can certainly, through policies, make local
manufacturing possible. Companies like Intel are realizing that PC
sales are flattening. Why shouldn't they come forward the government
gives a commitment of a few million pieces, to start with? In fact,
BJP, in its IT manifesto, had articulated this strategy.
Yes, the minister has got a little carried away by the student project
at this moment. You can laugh it away. But you cannot do that with a
dream. The government—and this country—has
wherewithal to pursue that dream. We may realize it; we may not. That
is no reason to dismiss it.
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