April 27, 2012, 7:48 AM
The Tangled Tale of Aakash, the World’s Cheapest Laptop
By PAMPOSH RAINA and HEATHER TIMMONS
Parivartan Sharma/Reuters
Students use the Aakash tablet, after its launch in New Delhi, Oct. 5,
2011.
Last October, with much fanfare, the Ministry of Human Resources
Development unveiled “Aakash,” a new, $35 computer built for Indian
students. More than six months later, with tens of thousands of
university students still waiting, the tale of the Aakash looks a bit
like an Indian soap opera, complete with a convoluted storyline,
multiple characters, and massive personality clashes.
Things started simply enough: In September 2010, the Ministry of Human
Resources Development tasked the Indian Institute of Technology
(I.I.T.) Rajasthan to procure and test 100,000 tablet computers at the
lowest possible price. Five months later, DataWind, a Canadian company,
won the tender and signed a contract for 227 million rupees, or about
$4.3 million. Production started in India a few months later.
Fast-forward to today: I.I.T. Rajasthan is no longer involved, having
been replaced by I.I.T. Bombay. DataWind and the company’s India-based
subcontractor, Quad Electronic, are having a financial dispute: Quad
Electronic claims DataWind owes it $1.12 million, which DataWind
denies. Meanwhile, I.I.T. Rajasthan is claiming damages of nearly half
a million dollars from DataWind, while DataWind says I.I.T. Rajathan
did not return its bid deposit of nearly $100,000. Oh, and DataWind has
sent a legal notice to the Indian Cellular Association, accusing them
of defamation.
The Ministry of Human Resources Development, which was overseeing the
project, is offering little explanation. Spokeswoman Mamata Verma said
in an e-mail that the project had “some intractable problems.” Suneet
Singh Tuli, the chief executive of DataWind, recently told India Ink
that he thought I.I.T. Rajasthan had “gone rogue” and was “trying to
sabotage the project.”
All this while thousands of Aakash tablets that meet the government’s
original specifications, gather dust in Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh.
So … how did things get this bad?
For the past year, India Ink has been carefully tracking the progress
of the project, which, if successfully completed, could enable millions
of students to connect with the larger digital world. Aakash is also
being closely watched outside India as the national government tries to
attract foreign investment in public-private partnerships for
everything from infrastructure to vocational training.
The original idea behind the Aakash seemed pleasantly simple. A cheap
computer would benefit Indian university students by enabling them to
watch lectures or get lecture notes and other class information online.
In 2009, a team of government researchers developed the basic design
for the low cost device.
The job of putting the project out to bid fell to I.I.T. Rajasthan,
which by spring of 2011 had received 477 million rupees — about $9.2
million — in government funds to pay for procuring and testing 100,000
low-cost tablets. In writing the tender, I.I.T. Rajasthan detailed the
technical specifications for the tablet but did not specify the
criteria for testing and approving the devices, according to a
government source involved in the project. That omission was to prove
disastrous.
Canada’s DataWind won the project with the lowest bid and outsourced
assembly to Quad Electronic, a manufacturer based in Secunderabad,
Andhra Pradesh.
DataWind executives say they built the tablet to the government’s
specifications, with a 366 megahertz processor and a 180-minute battery
life. In August 2011, DataWind shipped the first 1,000 Aakash tablets
to I.I.T. Rajasthan for testing.
This is where trouble cropped up: I.I.T. Rajasthan had not built a
special lab for testing the tablets, although the funding was allocated
for one, the government source says. Instead, testing was conducted on
an “ad hoc basis,” the government source said, meaning that testers
could choose to reject the tablet for reasons of their own choosing.
And reject they did.
DataWind chief executive Suneet Tuli says a problem first arose with a
slight buzzing sound that could be heard by a user wearing earphones.
He said the noise disappeared when music or video was played and that
the noise did not affect the functionality of the tablets.
Approximately 4,000 tablets were already in production, but DataWind
agreed to make changes to fix the problem.
India Ink made several calls to I.I.T. Rajasthan asking for an
on-the-record discussion about what happened. The school’s director,
Prem K. Kalra, who until recently was in charge of the project, did not
respond to dozens of phone calls. His assistant said he could not speak
on the subject, and passed along several requests for an interview.
After the first rejection, all parties agreed that an independent lab
should test the tablets, at DataWind’s cost, before they were sent to
I.I.T. Rajasthan. When DataWind chose BVQI, a subsidiary of Bureau
Veritas, a French company, the school rejected the company, saying it
was not qualified, Mr. Tuli and government sources say. The idea of a
third party tester was quietly abandoned.
Weeks later, DataWind shipped a second 1,000 tablets to I.I.T.
Rajasthan.
They, too, were rejected, because the tablet’s screens got warm after
the school’s testers ran them for several continuous hours, and
detachable screen protectors lifted slightly on some tablets, Mr. Tuli
said. The company agreed to provide adhesive that would permanently fix
the screen protectors to the tablets.
Then, DataWind shipped a third batch of 1,000 tablets to I.I.T.
Rajasthan. Some of these were rejected because the battery made a
slight rattling noise when testers shook the units vigorously, Mr. Tuli
said. Others were rejected when testers hung them from their power
cords and shook the cords strenuously, and some tablets detached from
the cords, he said.
Suddenly, it was ten days before Aakash’s scheduled launch in New Delhi
of Oct. 5, 2011. The Ministry had promised to unveil its super cheap
computer, but I.I.T. Rajasthan had not yet approved any.
Mr. Tuli and Mr. Kalra, the director of I.I.T. Rajasthan, were no
longer on speaking terms, say several parties involved. DataWind
executives weren’t invited to speak at the news conference, or were
mentioned in the press release, but they attended. I.I.T. Rajasthan
brought and distributed 500 tablets at the launch that they had never
approved.
Despite the internal turmoil, the news conference was a big success,
and Aakash attracted global attention. “World’s cheapest tablet
launched,” the Economic Times newspaper wrote after the launch. “India
has unveiled the world’s cheapest computer device, and hailed it as the
‘anti-iPad’,” an article in Britain’s Telegraph noted. Tech geeks from
Jamaica to North Carolina to Silicon Valley seemed enthralled with the
launch.
But behind the scenes, things were getting worse.
On Monday, we’ll examine what happened next, and where the project
stands now.New Work Times (April 27, 2012)
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