The $35 Laptop: Can Indian Public Investment Make Computing Technology Cheap?
By Mark Caine, Breakthrough Generation Fellow
Last week, the Indian government showcased a prototype of a low-cost laptop that could trigger an education revolution in India and elsewhere in the developing world. If successful, the newly announced computer will serve as a prime example of how direct government investments can reduce the price of technology quickly and effectively.
Funded by the Ministry of Human Resources Development and designed by students from India's top universities, the laptop is slated to enter the market in 2011.
According to a press briefing released by India's Ministry for Human Resources Development:
The price of the device exhibited today is expected to be around $35 per piece, gradually dropping down to $20 and ultimately to $10 a piece. Since this effort of continuous reduction in price and enhancement in capabilities would require a constant endeavour for R&D, IIT Rajasthan and some other IITs and technical institutions are setting up research teams to cover a wide range of issues in achieving our ultimate goal in terms of price and quality.
That's right: $35 for a laptop with a touch screen, wi-fi connectivity, 2GB of ram, and a USB port. As unbelievable as this seems--and some skeptics have indeed expressed reasonable doubt as to whether any laptop could be manufactured at such low cost--India has already proven itself capable of drastically reducing the price of complex technologies such as automobiles through innovative design and smart manufacturing.
While few details are available on how exactly the Indian government plans to manufacture a laptop at such low cost, is it really that far-fetched to think that the same manufacturing sector that produces the $2200 Tata Nano can leverage its technical skill, research funding, and manufacturing efficiency to bring the price of a functional computer down to $35, $20, or even $10?
In the absence of concrete details about how the Indian government is driving down the laptop's cost, only time will tell whether it can follow through on last week's announcement. Still, India's laptop project shows that in terms of strategy, India is demonstrating an understanding of the role that government investment can play in spurring the innovations that make critical technologies cheap and accessible.
If this initiative turns out to be successful, the new Indian laptop will serve as both a valuable educational tool and a powerful testament to the ability of government investment to trigger rapid technological progress.