IIT Rajasthan has so far distributed 572 of the 6640 Aakash Tablet devices received by it from its manufacturer Datawind, the college has said, in response to a Right To Information request filed by MediaNama. Of these, IIT Rajasthan 546 have been distributed to students, while 26 have been distributed to coordinators. IIT Rajasthan itself is the largest recipient of the Aakash Table, with 181 devices having been distributed to students, while Dayalbagh Educational Institute in Agra has received 59 and IIIT-DM in Jabalpur has received 47 devices. A complete list below.
Note: The RTI response we received had a table with the header “Distributed to Colleges at New Delhi”, though it mentions colleges other than those in New Delhi. We had requested complete information on distribution to colleges and students.
Datawind Not Paid; Delivered 6440 Tablets
As per the RTI response, Datawind, the manufacturer of the Aakash Tablet, is yet to be paid. Datawind has so far suppled 6440 devices to IIT Rajasthan, between 13th August and 1st November 2011. It appears that no tablets have been received since.
Datawind was one of six applicants which participated in the tender process:
– Bharat Electronics Ltd, Bangalore
– Fitech Equipments (I) Pvt Ltd, Mumbai
– STMicroelectronics Marketing Pvt Ltd, New Delhi
– EAFT Technologies, Bangalore
– Datawind Ltd, UK
– Moschip Semiconductor Technology Ltd, Hyderabad
In accordance with what the Ministry of HRD had told MediaNama, IIT Rajasthan says that Rs 47.72 crore has been received by it from the Ministry, of which Rs 25 crore for Testing and Development of LCADs and Rs 22.72 crore for Teachers Empowerment.
Other Notes
– MS Windows: A prebid meeting (January 17 2011) also considered the inclusion of Microsoft Windows or Windows embedded operating systems. However, remarks suggest that the pre-bid meeting committee focused instead on open standards. Flash support was considered optional, even though flash was required to deliver lecture content from YouTube
– Payment Terms: The tender document suggests that 80% of the value of the quantity supplied in each lot would be paid on delivery, and 10% on acceptance. Penalty for delayed delivery amounts to 0.5% of the value per week until delivery, up to a maximum balue of 10%.
– Warranty: The seller was supposed to replace any defective piece within one week from receipt of complaint from the buyer.
– Failure rate tolerance: the corrigendum states that if in a batch test of 1000 devices, of the percentage of defective devices is more than 5%, then the entire lot from which devices have been chosen would be rejected.
Note: We’ll update separately with more details of Datawind’s bid, since we have to pay a fee for 224 more pages of documents, and its processing might take some time.
Also read: Aakash Tablet RTI: Rs 47.72 Cr For 100,000 Tabs, Cost $49.98 Each; No Tender Docs With Ministry
