Laptop Nonprofit Vows Computer Access for All Children in India

One Laptop Per Child is pursuing sales to the private sector, instead of to the Indian government, to give children in India access to its computers. (Courtesy photo: Business Wire via IndUSbusinessJournal.com)

The following excerpt is from IndUSBusinessJournal.com.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - In the summer of 2006, Nicholas Negroponte approached the Indian government with a rather unique proposal.

Negroponte's fledgling nonprofit organization, One Laptop Per Child Inc., would sell laptop computers to the government that could be distributed to schools across the country. The asking price? A measly $100 per computer.

For Negroponte, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it was a golden opportunity to enter the huge Indian market and prove wrong the many naysayers who said that One Laptop Per Child would never be able to sell and distribute functional laptop computers on such a large scale for such a low price. Alas, the Indian Ministry of Human Resource Development rejected Negroponte's offer, leaving him to ponder his options - and the future of One Laptop Per Child.

But rather than let the setback derail the progress that the organization had made since its founding in January 2005, Negroponte pushed ahead, his resolve to enter India stronger than ever.

Two years later, he is closer than ever to realizing that dream.

In early August, One Laptop Per Child announced the appointment of Satish Jha, a former senior executive in the IT and healthcare industries, as president of its operations in India.

The Cambridge-based organization also appointed Tony Wong - a longtime senior official in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government - as president of One Laptop Per Child China.

The hirings add credibility to One Laptop Per Child's operations in both nations and signal that it is serious about expanding its presence in the Asia Pacific region.

"With 40 percent of the world's children located in China and India, these two countries are obviously important targets for OLPC," Negroponte said in a statement. "Tony Wong and Satish Jha both bring tremendous experience to the goal of expanding OLPC's penetration in Asia and we look forward to their contributions to our progress."

Taking a Different Approach

But One Laptop Per Child still doesn't have a purchase agreement with the Indian government, and the two sides appear no closer to signing one than they did two years ago.

In fact, Indian education officials are currently working with a pair of Indian universities to develop an alternative to One Laptop Per Child's XO laptop computer - a rugged, energy-efficient device that boasts a flash memory instead of a hard drive, runs on Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system and can access the Internet wirelessly - for about the same price.

However, One Laptop Per Child does have a small pilot program underway at the Vastishala Khairat-Dhangarvada school in tiny Khairat village, about 25 miles south of Mumbai, and Jha is determined to see that many more Indian children are able to use the green-and-white XO laptops.

In an interview with the IndUS Business Journal, he guaranteed that within five years, all Indian school children will have access to an XO.

"All I know is this: In five years time, every child in India will have access to an XO or a comparable machine," Jha said. "In five years that will happen - I am confident of that, because every time we set a deadline, we achieve it. This time, I set deadline for myself, and I know I will accomplish it. How? I don't know. But it will happen."

But in a departure from the norm, One Laptop Per Child has apparently decided to sidestep negotiating with the Indian government as the best way to reach students.

Since its founding, the organization has adhered to an expansion strategy of selling the XO to foreign governments, which then distribute them through their national ministries of education.

The laptops are loaned to the students in each nation, similar to textbooks, and ultimately remain the property of the issuing local government.

But in India, One Laptop Per Child is pursuing deals with the private sector.

"The XO was designed by Nicholas [Negroponte's] team, with input from lot of people who have worked for him for long time," Jha said. "But they don't know how to sell it - that's not their strong point. Ordinarily, this wouldn't be a problem. But in the case of One Laptop Per Child, the buyer is someone who is disadvantaged. So, we have to go through a third party, like a rich government or even a foundation, for funding. Or, as is the case with India, you can say, 'OK, I'll go to 10 organizations and ask them for a donation.'

"One Laptop Per Child has created a product for sale, but it can't sell it the same way you would sell soap or some other product," Jha added. "It is very different from that; we need to find someone to fund our efforts. And that's what we're doing in India."

Jha, who is based at One Laptop Per Child's headquarters in Massachusetts, has spent a considerable amount of time in India since early August reaching out to Indian business and civic leaders in an effort to secure funding for the organization's efforts there, as well as recruit talented individuals to advise the project.

"We're creating a nationwide organization, which is no small project, because India has 30 states and the largest of them is bigger than every European nation," Jah said. "IWhat I'm trying to do right now is create more momentum for those who can finance our efforts - that's my first priority, to create a national body of leaders. After that, I will work to crate a small body, like a secretariat, that will seek support at the state level."

Reliance Funds Pilot Project

Jha said thus far, One Laptop Per Child India has only received a small contribution from the Reliance-Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, a Mumbai-based industrial conglomerate and India's largest private company, which the organization used to purchase about 30 laptops for the pilot program in Khairat village.

That is in contrast to a news article that appeared Aug. 4 in the highly regarded American business magazine Businessweek, which stated that One Laptop Per Child and Reliance had joined forces to bring XO laptops to children across the country.

According to the article, the Digital Bridge Foundation - a charitable arm that Reliance created to work with One Laptop Per Child and pursue other projects - would provide the technology logistics help needed to install the computers at primary schools in India. But that was news to Jha.

"I am partnering with everybody; Reliance is just one part of the program," Jha said. "If they are willing to [invest] money into our efforts, then that is great. But so far, we have not signed any deals with Indian companies or foundations. But that said, our expectation is than anyone who agrees to partner will finance about 100,000 laptops."

Jha is optimistic that the prototype project in Khairat is an example of things to come for One Laptop Per Child India, which arrived in the community late last September [2007].

The tiny, one-room schoolhouse opened six years ago and currently has 28 boys and girls enrolled in first through fourth grades.

According to a blog entry on Khairat by One Laptop Per Child learning consultant Carla Gomez Monroy, the school was built on land donated by a local villager, who was "extremely happy with the idea of having the children of the town educated."

On their XO laptops, the children learn various subjects, including spelling, math, science and English. "The kids keep their laptops in very good shape - even one year after they received them, the computers still look very well - and the kids clearly have sense of pride of their laptops," said Jha.

source:  IndUSBusinessJournal.com

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