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Follow UsBANGALORE, INDIA: In a bid to clear the mist over government's ambitious Aakash tablet project, IT and communications minister Kapil Sibal is expected to meet key officials and Aakash manufacturer tomorrow.
Amidst rumors on the bitter relationship of Aakash manufacturer with the government, Sibal has today said that they believe in resolving issues.
Designed, developed and manufactured by a Canadian company, DataWind, the government has not renewed contract for Aakash beyond 1 lakh units.
Earlier, the government, through NME (National Mission on Education), promised to deliver 22 crore low-cost tablet PCs to students.
With reported flaws in Aakash, the government wanted to tread a cautious path and is in talks with other vendors as well, informed a source.
As DataWind is on its own recourse to launch a commercial version by March, citing the government's lackluster attitude, Sibal has announced that they would come up with the upgraded
version in April.
''We are in the process to enhance the specifications on the basis of feedback we have received from the first version of Aakash,'' Kapil Sibal said.
Hinting at the possibility to enroll other vendors, he added ''In order to cater to the huge demand, we need several manufacturers to manufacture Aakash.''
"As of now Datawind has delivered around 30,000 Aakash units while the rest 70,000 will have the upgraded version of Aakash 2," Sibal said. It is however not known whether the government will distance itself from DataWind for future orders.
After initial complaints from the IIT Jodhpur, the government did not issue a Letter of Credit to it, and have asked for the upgraded version. Meanwhile, DataWind chief Suneet Singh Tuli in an interview with MINT claimed that Aakash is not the government's patent.
A senior company official however told CIOL that the name, ‘Aakash’ arrived from a mutual discussion between them and IIT Jodhpur. ''We have conceived it on the basis of mutual understanding,'' the official said. He declined to comment further on it.