India develops £5 laptop

13:12 1st August 2008

An Indian minister has claimed that the country is developing a laptop to be sold at £5 that will target higher education applicants.

Daggubati Purandeswari, India's minister for state and higher education, said that research on the new low-cost laptop is being carried out at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and the Indian Institute of Technology in Chennai.

The laptop, which is being developed to help raise the quality of higher education in India, has not been given any specifications nor is it clear whether the price will be achieved through a government subsidiary.

Multinational technology companies such as Microsoft and Intel, as well as non-governmental organisations, have been working on technology for education in the country, where broadband subscribers total 4.38 million in a country of 1.13 billion people.

Last week, India's IT services association NASSCOM revealed that over 85 per cent of the country's graduates are not suitable for employment - leaving a gap in the IT skills market.

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