Laptops and Local Trains

When I first heard the news, I was reminded of chaiwalas on local trains who chant, “chaiiii, chaiiiii, chaiiiii” and sell just the right amount of delectable tea in earthen cups for a very sweet price. Has the day come? Will a new army of “laptopwalas” soon be chanting, “laptopppp, laptopppp, laptopppp,” on local trains […]

[Op-Ed]: The (Il)Logic of Laptops and Education

At several points during his presentation at MIT yesterday, Nicholas Negroponte mentioned prominent figures in passing – Kofi Annan, Steve Jobs, the Prime Ministers and Presidents of dozens of countries – but at no point did I think he was being self-aggrandizing. His style of speaking was interspersed with personal accounts and anecdotes that shed […]

Heart Scan Capable Laptops

Currently, there are only 4 laptops of its kind in circulation in India – two in Banglalore and one each in Jaipur and Chennai.  The Trivitron t300 costs between Rs. 1.2 million and Rs. 3 million, and is “designed for general, vascular, and breast imaging, interventional radiology, image-guided intervention, endocrinology, laparoscopy, neuro-sonography and nephrology.”  The innovative aspect of the technology, […]

Three (yes, 3!) Exciting Upcoming Conferences!

Looking for interesting conferences to attend over the course of the next two months? Well, look no further! Below are three upcoming conferences that we recommend you attend – The Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Conference (March 1, 2009), The Harvard Business School India Business Conference (March 15, 2009), and the Harvard Kennedy School International […]

Tech Winners Starting Small, Scaling Up

Remember the Tech Museum Awards? The award “honors innovators from around the world who are applying technology to benefit humanity.” The 25 winners were announced yesterday, with two innovators from India. MercuryNews.com covered the ceremony in San Jose, California and met with the winners, including DESI Power and Digital StudyHall. First, DESI Power is based […]

NComputing starts its account in India

TC-I readers might remember that Vinay had interviewed Stephen Dukker, Chairman & CEO of NComputing a couple of months ago. At that time Dukker was raring to make a mark in the Indian market. Last Monday, NComputing started on its Indian journey by announcing a deal with Government of Andhra Pradesh to supply 50,000 virtual […]

[TC-I Changemaker]: NComputing makes $70 PC for the Poor

The ThinkChange India staff is committed to providing our readers with interviews with people we believe are at the brink of something special but have for the most part been overlooked by the mainstream media. Readers will be able to see other conversations under our TC-I Changemakers tab. Last week, Vinay sat down (via webcast) […]

OLPC logs onto India, finally

[Source Article] After weathering multiple rebuffs, Nicholas Negroponte’s much touted One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project has finally found a foothold in India, in the form of ADAG (Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group). The Digital Bridge Foundation, part of ADAG, is providing the technology backbone and logistics for installation of OLPC’s white and green laptops in […]

Midday Newsfeed

Saturday afternoon news: Social welfare: The Government of Himachal Pradesh is planning to issue separate ration cards to single widows in the state to enable them draw benefits under various state social welfare programmes. (Source: iGovernment) Health research: Using supercomputing simulations and lab experiments, an IBM research team plans to accelerate the design of drugs […]

Harvard International Development Conference – April 3rd-6th

Harvard’s annual International Development Conference will be taking place this upcoming week from Thursday, April 3rd to Sunday, April 6th at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.  Details follow: The Annual International Development Conference is a student-run event providing a world-class inter-disciplinary forum on global sustainable development for practitioners and academics.  Each year the conference attracts over […]

Market for Wi-Fi will top $744 million by 2012

To piggyback on a recent post by Shital, the aforementioned report on “Wi-fi in India” also forecasted that “the overall Indian Wi-Fi market (including WLAN hardware, systems integration and software services, not including embedded devices, laptops) is predicted to grow from the current $41.57 million to exceed $744 million by 2012 (compound annual growth rate (CAGR) […]

One Mouse Per Child (even better than one virtual desktop)

Vinay just blogged about Jooce, a start-up in France that was featured in Businessweek recently. The idea behind the start-up is that, in providing access to PCs to adults and children in the developing world – its not about making more PC available but to maximize the number of people who can use a give […]

One virtual desktop per child?

A startup from France has embarked on developing a way for individuals to have their own private virtual desktop regardless of where they are located as a means to provide increased access to the benefits of computing technologies to those who cannot afford it. The company’s mission is similar to that of the One Laptop […]

Oracle Sponsored ThinkQuest Competition

From Let Me Know: ThinkQuest inspires students to think, connect, create, and share. Students work in teams to build innovative and educational websites to share with the world. Along the way, they learn research, writing, teamwork, and technology skills and compete for exciting prizes. ThinkQuest is a competition that offers a unique project-based learning experience […]