Development and Testing
Kapil Sibal has stated that a million devices would be made available to students in 2011. The devices will be manufactured at a cost of 1500 (€23 Euro) each, half of which will be paid by the government and half by the institutions that would use it. In January 2011, the company initially chosen to build the Sakshat, HCL Infosystems, failed to provide evidence that they had at least 600 million ($12.2 million) in bank guaranteed funds, as required by the Indian government, which has allocated $6.5 million to the project. As a result, the government put the project out for bidding again.
In June 2011,the HRD announced that it received a few samples from the production process which are under testing. Also it mentions that each state in India provided 3000 samples for testing on their functionality, utility and durability in field conditions. The Government of India announced that 10,000 (Sakshat) tablet will be delivered to schools and colleges by late June and over the next four months 90,000 more would be made available at a price of 2500 device. Government will subsidize the cost by about 50%, so a student would have to pay less than 1,500 for the device. Indian Ministry of Education is releasing educational videos in conjunction with IGNOU and at sakshat.ac.in. This preparation of content is meant for students with access to the Internet, India's first law-biding Online Video Library.
Software Development
DataWind, the maker of Aakash, has announced a contest for students wherein their best applications will be embedded in the Ubislate(Aakash Tablet). Top 5 application winners will be awarded Rs 100,000 each. Nasscom Foundation has partnered with DataWind and announced a contest wherein 10 NGOs will have an opportunity to win 20 tablets each, mainly to improve their operations and programme implementation.
Hardware Development
IIT-Rajasthan's specifications were 1.2 GHz CPU and 700 MB RAM. It wanted the tablet to work after steep falls and in Monsoon season, making the cost over Rs 5000. So responsibility of drafting specifications will be shifted to IIT Mumbai, IIT Madras and IIT Kanpur while PSUs are being considered for procurement of the Aakash Tablet. Aakash 2 could have the 1 GB RAM, Capacitive TouchScreen Panel and a front facing camera of VGA Quality (0.3MP), capable of capturing video, that was announced earlier by Kapil Sibal. This version of tablet may be announced only after October 2012, because of low funds in procuring the raw material for assembling and also setting up of assembling plant at Noida and Coimbatore. The Govt. officials say that the tablet may not be realised due to the pressure from various institutes and meagre support from the Indian Government in regard to the funds regarding the process of the tablet procurement and assembly of the same.
35% of hardware components were sourced from South Korea, 25% from China, 16% from the USA, 16% from India and 8% from other countries.
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