Communications and Information Technology Minister Kapil Sibal on Saturday said that as many as 18 companies have shown interest in supplying tablets for the Aakash project.
“Aakash tablet project is still alive and kicking. It will provide a platform for the future, and not just for children but for all citizen of India for other public services,” Sibal said at the Editor's conference.
The HRD Minister M.M. Pallam Raju on Friday had indicated that his ministry may give up on the Aakash project and said that the focus should be on educational contents for the students and let them choose which device to use.
He also said that it has been decided to set up two committees to review the project as well as the National Mission on Education through ICT , which would decide the fate of Aakash.
However, Sibal said that the HRD Ministry may have been worried about Datawind (the company manufacturing Aakash tablet). “The HRD Ministry is talking about their contract with Datawind. Datawind may or may not have complied with terms of the contract…but, that’s between them (HRD Ministry) and Datawind and they can decide what they want to decide,” he said.
Sibal said that the Aakash project is being monitored by a committee that consists of Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, Industrial Training Institutes, IIT-Madras and Bombay, and representatives of HRD as well.