India is all set to launch an ultra cheap laptop, developed as part of a broader national plan to attract Indian colleges and schools toward emerging trends in information technology. The laptop, known as Sakshat, is aimed to bridge gap between rich and poor by linking 18,000 colleges and 400 universities across the country.

The laptop will have 2GB inbuilt memory and user friendly applications. It would be available for just Rs 600, giving stiff competition to rival PC manufactures like the One Laptop per Child's XO machine and the Intel Classmate.

Commenting on the development, Prabhakar Rao, Vice-chancellor of the university in Andhra Pradesh, said, "In a developing country, costs have to be kept low so that the maximum number of students will benefit. That means cheap computers and cheap broadband access, so that students get access to e-books and e-journals."

BSNL also announced last year that it may offer free broadband to increase connectivity across the country. There hasn't been any update on the plan till now.

The Laptop, developed by the collective efforts of Vellore Institute of Technology the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras and due to launch from Triputi in Andhra Pradesh, would be the latest in a series of initiatives to create low cost computing devices for Indians.

However, some people raised question over its commerciality at such cheap price. India is sourcing most of computer hardware from China, so it may be difficult to offer such low priced laptop.