The Government of India is planning to make smartphones priced below $100 or Rs 5,000 approximately to drive country's broadband push, according to a report of The Economic Times.
"The government is exploring ways to encourage the biggest handset makers to produce sub- $100 advanced smartphones on a large scale that will come pre-loaded with the latest entertainment applications and also support mobile banking, telemedicine, education to even farming applications like e-krishi," according to the report.
Currently, many Indian as well as Chinese manufacturers are selling their Android smartphones for as low as Rs 2,800. So government has to offer really something very lucrative to lure people. In 2011, the government had come out with the low cost Aakash tablet which was slammed for both its poor features as well as unavailability. Hopefully, the Indian government would not repeat the same mistake.
According to a report by Economic Times, the proposal was discussed on July 29 during the first meeting of the joint working group on broadband that is co-chaired by the department of telecommunication's (DoT) additional secretary, Rita Teotia, and ex-Nasscom chief, Kiran Karnik, who currently heads the Confederations of India's Industry's telecom advisory cell. But would the move work in favour of the government? Would it be able to impact the lives of billions who find themselves below poverty line, let alone afford a smartphone? Without the availability of local content and availability of application in local languages, would the masses be able to make good use of the power of these smartphones? The questions are countless but the government has very few answers, as usual!
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