India Officially Launches Simputer

aravind writes "The Communications and IT Minister, Pramod Mahajan, has launched India's indigenously developed low-cost handheld Personal Computer -- Simputer -- at an IT and Communication expo, SMAU 2002, in Milan. A low-cost handheld PC on GNU/Linux working through a browser for international markup language IML, priced at Rs9000 (less than $200). 200Mhz StrongArm processor, 32MB DRAM, 24 MB flash, touchscreen, speakers, USB, text-to-speech, MP3 capability ... " Look here for some of the previous stories we've run on the Simputer.

Comments

Indians most misused word

[Anonymous Coward]

IANAII (I am not an Indian from India) but I notice that when talking to my Indian friends, the ones born in India and not the second generation US-ians, they tend to love using the word indigenous, much like the poster of the ./ article has done. E.g. "In India we have indigenously developed our own nuclear technology" or "We have indigenously developed our own supercomputers" etc.

The main problem is the understanding of the word. You'd expect that being indigenous means being wholly developed locally. But far from it. Take the Simputer for example. Most of the components are from technologies outside India. The same with their Param supercomputer (rebadged Suns) and many of the so called "indigenous" technologies. Where do you think the technology for propelling India's missiles/rockets came from? To this end, Indians have proved to be good integrators. Maybe it's the politicians in New Delhi misleading the public or their attempt to provide a feel good factor but I think that it's being...err...disingenuous!