Low cost Aakash generates a lot of enthusiasm in US: Sibal

HRD Minister Kapil Sibal on Wednesday said the low cost computing device Aakash has generated a lot of "enthusiasm" among the American public and several companies there have evinced interest to associate with the project to further raise its efficiency and productivity.

The Minister, who returned yesterday from a week-long trip to the US where he attended the first ever Indo-US higher education summit, said details of the product were also shared with the World Bank which suggested spreading it among the students world-wide.

"There was a lot of enthusiasm surrounding Aakash. Several people and big companies met us who are into this business (IT). They expressed interest to partner with this project, to increase its application and speed, increase the processor from 300 MHz to 800

MHz," Sibal told reporters.

However, he said the price tag of USD 35 willl remain the same and the US firms have agreed to this.

The world's cheapest tablet PC costing Rs 2,276, was launched on October 5 and it will be available at around half this price to students as part of government's programme to expand education through information technology.

An initial order of 1 lakh devices has been placed with device maker Datawind. He said that World Bank has promised to display the item in its board and suggested to "spread it among the students worldwide".