While there is no dearth of stories telling the gloom in economy all over, there are individuals and institutions in India that are keeping themselves focused working hard to make a difference.
Is it not amazing that India is set to market low-cost laptop at $10 to bridge the “digital divide” between rich and poor? The prototype is already in testing. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find out the details of its demonstration scheduled for today, February 3, 2008 at Tirupati according to the media reports.

It is another example of ultra-cheap engineering from India that has already given the world a 100,000 rupee (£1,420) car, the Tata’s ‘Nano’ and a super-basic £10 phone.

I wish many more innovators and entrepreneurs take inspiration from these success stories of India’s smart frugal engineering, as this may be the way to compete with the Chinese head on. And these products with some changes may find favour among relatively affluent Westerners too as the global economic downturn bites.

As reported, ‘the launch of a viable computer that costs less than most paperback books would herald a startling new era in thrifty manufacturing’. When I first read about it I didn’t believe. I had written about $100 laptop, the ‘one laptop per child (OLPC)’ initiative of MIT’s Nicholas Negroponte extensively. But at one tenth of the price of OLPC, the Indian initiative is really a great answer by a poor country for its children in millions. It will help millions to get connected to the vast pool of knowledge available through Internet.

The $10 laptop of India is the result of the joint endeavours put in by students of Vellore Institute of Technology, scientists in Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, IIT-Madras and involvement of PSUs like Semiconductor Complex. The secretary, higher education has said, “At this stage, the price is working out to be $20 but with mass production it is bound to come down.” The Indian laptop is part of India’s new National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology, a scheme to boost learning in rural areas through the internet.

And it is not only the $10 laptop but there are many other areas, where the innovators are working hard to help the needy. One such example is the India’s celebrated Jaipur Foot, which has kept afloat hopes and aspirations among millions of handicapped people around the world by allowing them to walk again. Interestingly, researchers at Stanford University in the US and the non-government Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Sangh of Jaipur are working on an artificial hand (perhaps ‘Jaipur Hand‘) that is likely to be in production within the next six months. Surprisingly, the Sangh is the world’s largest producer of artificial limbs.

Let the there be no gloom. Let the global slowdown not deter the Indian talents from innovating new and necessary products at affordable price for the billions at the bottom of the pyramid in this world.