Feeds

India rejects One Laptop Per Child

But Nigeria says yes

Secure remote control for conventional and virtual desktops

India has decided against getting involved in Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child scheme - which aims to provide kids in developing countries with a simple $100 machine.

The success of the project depends on support, and big orders, from governments. The loss of such a potentially huge, and relatively technically sophisticated market, will be a serious blow.

The Indian Ministry of Education dismissed the laptop as "pedagogically suspect". Education Secretary Sudeep Banerjee said: "We cannot visualise a situation for decades when we can go beyone the pilot stage. We need classrooms and teachers more urgently than fancy tools."

Banerjee said if money were available it would be better spent on existing education plans.

Banerjee told the Hindu: "We do not think that the idea of Prof Negroponte is mature enough to be taken seriously at this stage and no major country is presently following this. Even inside America, there is not much enthusiasm about this."

OLPC's original schedule was to deliver machines by the end of 2006, but it will not start production until it has received orders, and payment, for between five and ten million machines.

But in better news it also emerged earlier this month that Nigeria is ordering one million machines. Allafrica.com has the story here.

The idea is backed by AMD, Google, MIT, Nortel and Red Hat.

China, India, Brazil, Argentina, Egypt, Nigeria, and Thailand were all named by the OLPC organisation as governments which had expressed an interest.

More info on the OLPC project here.®

How to simplify SSL certificate management

More from The Register

next story
Give nerds their own PRIVATE TRAIN CARRIAGES, say boffins
The Thinkfluencers' Express will depart from platform 94 5/4...
Nothing illegal to see here: Tribunal says TEMPORA spying is OK
Rules mass surveillance is legal, in principle at least
Oi, UK.gov. WHERE'S THE DETAIL on your Google Tax?
Beancounters ponder how headline-grabbing idea will work in reality
VCs say Uber is worth $41bn... but don't worry, we're not in a bubble
Car service valued higher than two years of space exploration
Wheels fall off bid to sue Apple over iTunes anti-piracy shenanigans
Turns out you can't file lawsuit on behalf of 'whoever'
Randall Munroe: The root nerd talks to The Register
XKCD creator on life, the universe and everything
DEAD STEVE JOBS accuses Real Networks of 'hacking' iPods
Fruity firm's co-founder testifies from BEYOND the GRAVE
prev story

Whitepapers

Three businesses share why they chose Citrix XenDesktop over VMware View
Delivering Windows apps and desktops as secure mobile services from a cloud-ready platform while simplifying management, reducing costs and enhancing security.
Focus on 5 SIEM requirements
In order for SIEM to help usher in more effective security and risk management strategies—particularly as they relate to threat mitigation, embracing trends, and aligning with business priorities—these five issues must be solved.
The Escalating Threat of DDoS Attacks
With increasing frequency and scale, some of the world’s largest data center and network operators are suffering from crippling Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.
Reg Reader Research: SaaS based Email and Office Productivity Tools
Read this Reg reader report which provides advice and guidance for SMBs towards the use of SaaS based email and Office productivity tools.
Mobile, multilingual, and content authoring
The major changes in Drupal 8 for end users, site builders, designers and front-end developers, and for back-end developers - part 1.