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India Backs Out Of $100 Laptop Program
By: Priyanka Pradhan   |   Jul 27,2006
The Indian government has decided to back out of the ‘One Laptop Per Child' (OLPC) programme, designed to provide children and educators in developing countries with a simple-to-use computer costing $100 each. The Ministry of Human Resource Development reconsidered its earlier decision to implement the program offered by MIT professor Nicholas Negroponte, saying there are no proven benefits of providing all children with their own laptops.

In a letter to India's Planning Commission, Education Secretary Sudeep Banerjee reportedly wrote, "The case for giving a computer to every single person is pedagogically suspect. It may actually be detrimental to the growth of creative and analytical abilities of the child". He further mentioned that the education ministry should spend its money to strengthen secondary education in the country in terms of classrooms and teachers, rather than on "fancy tools".

Negroponte will not begin assembling and shipping units until some 5 million to 10 million computers are ordered and paid for, so OLPC's success depends largely on its adoption in large countries and India's decision could represent a major blow to the initiative. The project is supported by AMD, Google and Red Hat and includes countries like China, Brazil, Egypt, Thailand and Nigeria, which has already placed an order for 1 million laptops.

Read more here.

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what is the importance of laptop computer to student in the taiciary institution
ijai james @ Mar 27,2008
This is a clear example of our ignorance of what is the power of computer. As a citizen of India, how many of us have made a legitimate assessment of its impact? What is the basis of Mr Bannerjee's comments? Has he made his statements based on a countrywide study? Do the people who support his decisions have access to Negroponte's estimates on its value? Please wake up. I am not a supporter of Negroponte but I demand to know what plans Mr Bannerjee has to improve our children’s educational environment. Right now nothing! If someone has a vision, do not rubbish it by only looking from the investment angle but carryout a proper cost benefit analysis and use that as a basis to reject or accept. An individual’s hunch carries little value in this informed world. Let’s see some facts and figures from Mr Bannerjee before jumping into conclusions.
Panda @ Jul 28,2006
We don't need anybody else to bring ruin to our country. We can do it on our own
/shakes head

This decision is stupid to say the least. NIIT's Hole in the Wall concept is such a success that the program has been adopted by the UN and 14 other countries. An American TV channel, in fact, regularly shows a 2-hour documentary on how merely providing access to shared computers in a Kalkaji slum in N. Delhi contributed to improved educational access among mostly illiterate children.

This $100 laptop would have been a great opportunity for the disadvantaged in our society to reach equality in education (with the government, industry, and private citizens doing their respective parts).

Looks like Negroponte refused to pay the necessary bribes to the crooks that exist among the Indian politician and bureaucrat classes. The net result is that we are cutting our joint noses to spite our face.

Any bets that China will go all out and make this project a success story? Anybody?
Prashant @ Jul 28,2006
Hi,
First of all. I think 100 dollars is a large amount when converted to Indian Rupee. So spending that much on a laptop /per child is not a good idea. It would be good to have some computers in each school though.
Second, As Tony pointed out (though i think his data may be not too accurate given how common phones are now a days in india (atleast the urban parts)), it would be a good idea to spend the time and money used for this project to improve existing schools and getting more teachers.
Sushant @ Jul 28,2006
I understand that it would not be very wise if invest a lot of money in a product without knowing much about the end product, but I think that problem can be better solved by asking for a few proto-type machines and looking at them. Ofcourse, if the government finds this whole idea to be too expeinsive to begin with and just needed an excuse to get out of it, I think they have done a very good job of it. On the other hand, if they mean everything thing like 'a laptop can hamper creativity' and all that - that does not seem possible - or are the children in well-to-do families in the cities "creatively handicapped" ?
Kris @ Jul 28,2006
Hilarious remarks about the bribes, BTW.

That is an excellent point.

I cannot imagine why Negroponte would want to impose a position for 5 - 10 million computers if he is such a lil doogooder.

That's about $500 million to $1 billion, which is mighty nice of him to insist that we fork over before he starts putting them together.

this is asia, we should have no trouble figuring out inexpensive tablets or other computing toys to provide our kids and stimulate our own and asian economies, should we decide later on.

Tell Negroponte to fork over some cash or get it from Warren Buffet and buy school books, stationary and writing implements for the schools in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi and if after that, he feels like forking over some more cash for laptops, hey, go ahead.

By which time, I hope we will have figured out how to make an inexpensive tablet or computing toy and we can provide them to him to distribute to kids in the city boroughs and in the south.

Ciao youse.
MinnieB9 @ Jul 27,2006
Yes indead the government should focus on present education system. On the other side of mirror this saves the government from being exploited in to big crupption scandel as we see in the past.
And still a noumber of these are still in the various courts of the country.
However I feel realy sorry for handfull of middlemen and politecians who lost there chance to get bribe.
VARINDER SHARMA @ Jul 27,2006
This is a well intentioned step taken by the government. If only the reasoning given by the government is actually acted upon - that of concentrating on developing primary and secondary education - will it be more helpful.
In a country where there are 10 telephones per 100 people (urban) and just 4 per 100 (rural), there are more important issues to look at than these "fancy tools".
However, action speaks louder than words, and one hopes that the government executes its education plans.
Toby @ Jul 27,2006
Government has taken good decision. centre and states should first focus on present education system. If existing system is not sufficient enough to provide good quality of education then OLPC will not do any value add. Secondly this is also true that first let them develope their abilities to learn and explore things. OLPC will kill their curosity at first place quite possibliy.
jogendra @ Jul 27,2006
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