45 days on, students await new Aakash

The easy-on- the-pocket, Aakash tablet, didn't come anywhwere near the expectations of the city students. The improved version of Aakash has still not reached city college students, turning their excitement into a long ordeal. Students from the city colleges were the first recipients of this tablet in the region and these were sent back to Indian Institute of Technology-Jodhpur over 45 days by the college authorities as initially planned.

Twelve students each from the Post-Graduate Government College for Girls, Sector 42 and Post Graduate Government College, Sector 11 received these tablets from IIT-Jodhpur, which was handling the project for the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD).

However, now with the project changing hands from IIT-Jodhpur to IIT-Mumbai, a long delay is being expected in the delivery of these tablets to students again.

"This had been an ambitious project of the Government of India that promised to change the education scenario not just at the national but at the global level. However the delay caused in giving these tablets back to the students is an academic failure. It has been a lapse and the two IITs should ideally co-ordinate with one another now," says Dilip Kumar, faculty incharge of the project from the region.

College students, who got the tablets, were required to fill up a questionnaire as part of the experimental stage of Aakash under the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NME-ICT). Likewise, students suggested improvements in the gadget and an improved version was promised to be delivered to them soon.

With over 45 days having passed, there is no word from either the MHRD or IIT-Jodhpur, whose officials say that the project is now being dealt by the Mumbai IIT.