By PTI

New Delhi: Students across the country will be able to buy specially designed laptops at affordable prices with the Government planning to provide them the gadget at around Rs400.

Research in this direction is being carried out at the Indian Institute of Sciences in Bangalore and IIT-Madras to develop a special laptop at a cost of $10 for students to help them excel in studies.

“The government aims to provide $10 laptops to students and research in this direction is on,” said D Purandeshwari, minister of State for Human Resources Development here.

The initiative has been taken by the government to enable students to make the most of Information Technology, which is emerging as a catalyst for the country’s socioeconomic development, she said.

Her announcement came at the inaugural session of ‘e-India 2008,´ an international conference of IT solution providers and government agencies to facilitate practices of e-governance and digital learning in the country.

The minister said, “In coming years, thrust will be on using ICT to strengthen various mode of learning in school and at higher education levels. To deliver benefits of ICT in the learning process, the ‘National Mission in Education through ICT´ will be launched, with the objective of providing connectivity to learners in the ‘Knowledge World´ in cyberspace”.