In the city to give a talk at the TEDxGateway, an independently organised TED event at the National Centre for the Performing Arts today, Suneet Singh Tuli, CEO of UK-based Datawind, the company that produced the world's cheapest tablet Aakash (UbiSlate in its commercial version that ships in February 2012), is a busy man. In between taxi rides to and from the airport, the soft-spoken man tells us why the tablet, which has already garnered 3 lakh bookings eight weeks before its official launch, might offer free 3G services, and improve your rickshawalla's standard of living

The tablet interface really doesn't require any computer education to use. Is that why UbiSlate is a tablet and not a netbook or notebook?
The touchscreen interface is very intuitive, and that's what makes it accessible. I taught my three year-old the alphabet by using an app on a tablet that let him pull a train across the screen to trace along the letters. He didn't have the dexterity to hold a pencil at his age, but this was so simple that he could do it.


Suneet Singh Tuli with the UbiSlate. Pic/ Satyajit Desai

When mobile phones were first introduced in India, the argument was similar -- that India lacked the literacy levels required for cellphone penetration. Today, 900 million people in the country use cellphones. We don't realise how resourceful people are. Given the opportunity to use technology, they find ways to take advantage of it. That's why a low-cost tablet makes sense for someone who cannot afford a personal computer.

Pre launch orders have already crossed an unprecedented 3 lakh, we hear.
It's amazing. The belief is that access to a computer and the Internet empowers you and improves your quality of life through education, and is the biggest reason for our orders. Mostly, it's institutes who want to give students the opportunity to use the tablet, or individual consumers who are motivated by the educational opportunities for their children. If that can be delivered in Rs 3,000, we must take advantage of it. Also for the first time, people are proud of a quality product that's made in India, as well as inspired by it to want to do good with it. We also get orders from corporates, who want to equip their service staff with the tablet.