Wait for another 6 months and you will see laptops for $10 available throughout India. This is what the Education Ministry claims. It says that as part of its initiative to help people with online education. As per Mr R P Agrawal, India’s Secretary of Higher Education, said that the ministry is aiming to offer online education so that people in the remote corners of the country can benefit.

In an interview to the “Indian Express”, he said that the online courses are the only method whereby the universities can reach the remote areas and help the students who cannot attend colleges regularly to get them formal educational degrees. He adds that IITs will play a significant role in the scheme. They will be beaming e-content for various courses, free of cost.

The prototype is expected soon. It comes with a wireless internet capability so that there is no need of cables. Thus people living in areas where proper cabling is not possible will also benefit. The $10 Laptop will include slots for expandable memory.

The prototype is the result of the collaboration of the students from the IIT, Bangalore’s Indian Institute of Science, and the Vellore IT College, among others. As of now, the government is planning to rope in companies like Intel to help them mass produce these Laptops.

Mr Agrawal adds that there is still some work to be done on these Laptops so that they do not need any external source of power. These Laptops will be incorporated with equipment that will charge the laptop batteries using the solar or wind energy. This makes the size of these laptops a little bigger than normal laptops.