Indian-made Aakash 2 budget tablet launches today, costs $21

On India’s National Education day, which is today, the mega-cheap and cheerful budget tablet the Aaskash 2 launches for the price of US$21. It’s an exceptionally vanilla tablet but one that costs less than the price of two happy meals.

For US$21, which is roughly the price of a cab fare across town, the Aakash 2 packs in a 1Ghz CPU, a half-gig of RAM, Android 4.0.3, 4GB flash memory, with a VGA camera on the front and Wi-Fi into a seven-inch screen. All this for less than the price of a few schoolbooks.

Presenting the Aakash 2

The Aakash 2 will be sold in India first for RS1 130, which is where the US$21 price-point comes from. Let’s assume though that with shipping and various taxes, the Aakash 2 will retail internationally for double or triple the price.

Datawind’s CEO has this to say regarding the budget tablet. “The price is Rs2 263 at which the government purchases the device from us. The government subsidises it by 50 per cent and it will be distributed to students at Rs1 130,” The first 100 000 units will be distributed to an IT institute in Bombay. Those who want to pre-book the tablet can do some from this site.