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RonAbner56
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Plavalli
Thousands of school children in some states in India have got stripped-down ...
Indian tablet for education project in fresh controversy
Kariyatil Krishnadas
4/16/2012 12:50 PM EDT
BANGALORE, India—The proposed low-cost tablet for educational purposes, "Aakash" (or sky) officially launched in October, has been mired in controversy from the start.
Monday (April 16), the situation got even more complicated with Datawind Ltd., the original winner of the Aakash contract, stating that the company is still in the running for the second and better version of the $35 tablet.
Suneet Singh Tuli, CEO of Datawind, said some sections of the media were sensationalizing the company in a negative manner while others have reported that Quad Electronics Pvt. Ltd., the Hyderabad-based contract manufacturer building the tablet for Datawind, has gone to court to claim its rightful dues.
Datawind appointed Quad to make the tablets on its behalf. But Datawind retained the tablet's intellectual property.
"There have been reports in a section of media about Datawind being served a legal notice for non-payment of dues by its assembly partner Quad Electronics Solutions," Tuli said. "The assembler further alleges that Datawind could not work with the government and did not abide by the contract with Quad. The assembler vendor also accuses Datawind of reneging on its promises to customers."
According to Tuli, Quad breached Datawind's intellectual property, circumvented Datawind's relationship with the Indian Institute of Technology-Rajasthan (IIT-R), signed a direct memorandum of understanding with IIT-R and sold its Aakash inventory on the open market. "Datawind has since appointed new partners to assemble the tablet," Tuli said.
Currently, however, the situation is a murky one. Kapil Sibal, the minister for communications and information technology had last month said that Datawind is out of the running for the improved version of the product, but Indian ministers are known to go back on their word.
A representative of onne Indian company that is a contender in case a fresh contract is called for said that the murkiness of the project is so much now, and no one is sure of what the status of the project is at present.
So, even as several new companies have announced their tablets at various prices for the Indian market—encouraged by the enthusiasm evident at the launch of the Aakash—it could be too early to dismiss Tuli's statement that "Datawind has full confidence of the Government and is working on the second generation of the tablet."
Meanwhile, according to Naveen Mishra, lead telecom analyst at Cybermedia Research, about 475,000 media tablets were sold in India during 2011.
"In India the media tablet has very quickly metamorphosed from being a 'premium' or 'luxury' product for the select few, to one that has appeal to a wide range of customer segments such as business executives, advertising and media professionals and students, to name a few," Mishra added.
Monday (April 16), the situation got even more complicated with Datawind Ltd., the original winner of the Aakash contract, stating that the company is still in the running for the second and better version of the $35 tablet.
Suneet Singh Tuli, CEO of Datawind, said some sections of the media were sensationalizing the company in a negative manner while others have reported that Quad Electronics Pvt. Ltd., the Hyderabad-based contract manufacturer building the tablet for Datawind, has gone to court to claim its rightful dues.
Datawind appointed Quad to make the tablets on its behalf. But Datawind retained the tablet's intellectual property.
"There have been reports in a section of media about Datawind being served a legal notice for non-payment of dues by its assembly partner Quad Electronics Solutions," Tuli said. "The assembler further alleges that Datawind could not work with the government and did not abide by the contract with Quad. The assembler vendor also accuses Datawind of reneging on its promises to customers."
According to Tuli, Quad breached Datawind's intellectual property, circumvented Datawind's relationship with the Indian Institute of Technology-Rajasthan (IIT-R), signed a direct memorandum of understanding with IIT-R and sold its Aakash inventory on the open market. "Datawind has since appointed new partners to assemble the tablet," Tuli said.
Currently, however, the situation is a murky one. Kapil Sibal, the minister for communications and information technology had last month said that Datawind is out of the running for the improved version of the product, but Indian ministers are known to go back on their word.
A representative of onne Indian company that is a contender in case a fresh contract is called for said that the murkiness of the project is so much now, and no one is sure of what the status of the project is at present.
So, even as several new companies have announced their tablets at various prices for the Indian market—encouraged by the enthusiasm evident at the launch of the Aakash—it could be too early to dismiss Tuli's statement that "Datawind has full confidence of the Government and is working on the second generation of the tablet."
Meanwhile, according to Naveen Mishra, lead telecom analyst at Cybermedia Research, about 475,000 media tablets were sold in India during 2011.
"In India the media tablet has very quickly metamorphosed from being a 'premium' or 'luxury' product for the select few, to one that has appeal to a wide range of customer segments such as business executives, advertising and media professionals and students, to name a few," Mishra added.
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Sanjib.Acharya
4/16/2012 1:14 PM EDT
So who is going to bring the improved version of Akash to the market? Neither Data wind...nor Quad Electronics? It's very surprizing to see that the contract manufacturer (Quad) is accusing its customer (Datawind) of not being able to handle its customers properly.
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Plavalli
4/17/2012 9:35 AM EDT
No one's sure as of now, Sanjib - Kariyatil
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t.alex
4/16/2012 6:46 PM EDT
But sales of the first version have been going well?
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Plavalli
4/17/2012 9:36 AM EDT
No accurate figures, speculation puts it at about 10,000 others are far less charitable - Kariyatil
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tefl0n
4/16/2012 10:37 PM EDT
This is why governments shouldn't be in the business of making electronics.
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KB3001
4/17/2012 12:16 PM EDT
I dream of a world with no Gov. interference....
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Neo1
4/17/2012 1:01 AM EDT
Ahh, well the Indian govt is in business ;)
Any private company which is sensible enough will not bother to venture into this quagmire of deceit, corruption and plain stiffling inefficiency.
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BicycleBill
4/17/2012 11:38 AM EDT
This whole thing sounds very much like the US-based "One Laptop per Child" story, which was all hype, promises, shifting goals, self-congratulatory storyline which much of the media bought and wrote without a critical word. But when Intel said they would compete with OLPC on price and features, the OLPC folks got very upset, saying,in effect: how dare they intrude on our market, and our chance to be wonderful PC saviors to the masses?
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Plavalli
4/17/2012 11:07 PM EDT
Thousands of school children in some states in India have got stripped-down versions of laptops and more states are announcing similar schemes to get votes. The laptop is often free though, while the tablet is not. I guess it adds to the confusion of parents and children on what to opt for. I guess here we'd call it OLTPC - One Laptop and/or Tablet per Child! - Kariyatil
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KB3001
4/17/2012 12:17 PM EDT
If you want a real mess brought to any venture, get Government involved....
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RonAbner56
3/28/2013 5:53 AM EDT
If you're trying to do something useful, then why did you do that!? If you haven't tried any of these, then why don't you!? I think that many students who want some [url=http://my-crossroad.com/2013/02/advantages-of-getting-masters-degree.html]masters degree[/url]s aren't interested in this dispute. The finality of a thing it's important, not our personal ego.
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