and she said.. "how you interpret the dream is probably more important than the dream itself"

At first, India scoffed at the One Laptop Per Child initiative. At $100 per machine, is it too much money? Or just not such a great use of resources? Regardless, they rejected it:

The Indian Ministry of Education dismissed the laptop as "pedagogically suspect". Education Secretary Sudeep Banerjee said: "We cannot visualise a situation for decades when we can go beyone the pilot stage. We need classrooms and teachers more urgently than fancy tools."

Banerjee said if money were available it would be better spent on existing education plans.

Decades she said!

No matter.. countries are like school girls these days, likely to change their fancies on a whim and a prayer. The Indian Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) now hopes to make their own reality - a $10 laptop:

HRD ministry's idea to make laptops at $10 is firmly taking shape with two designs already in and public sector undertaking Semiconductor Complex evincing interest to be a part of the project.

So far, the cost of one laptop, after factoring in labour charges, is coming to $47 but the ministry feels the price will come down dramatically considering the fact that the demand would be for one million laptops. "The cost is encouraging and we are hopeful it would come down to $10. We would also look into the possibility of some Indian company manufacturing the parts," an official said..

.. Sources say it would be another two years before the laptops become a reality.

The truth of the matter is that, even with the likes of Google, Nortel, and others behind the OLPC, it has yet to become a reality. The reality is also that Google and Nortel are corporations with bottom lines and profit margins. The truth is that government agencies (of the kind with words like "Human" and "Development" in their titles) are exactly the entities that should be coordinating these sorts of efforts. You know, of the people but for the people? We've just come to expect so much less from our public institutions.. But perhaps this is an example of where a government agency could do a better job at.. you know.. doing it's job.