India has developed the world’s cheapest laptop – a touchscreen device which resembles Apple’s wildly popular iPad but will cost just £23.

The prototype was unveiled this week by Kapil Sibal, the country’s human resource development minister, who said 110 million Indian schoolchildren would be the first recipients.

Questions:

1.  Find the current exchange rates and calculate the price of the laptop in U.S. dollars?  Show your work and the site you found to get the exchange rate.

2. What types of costs do you speculate that the country has been able to cut to achieve the £1,450 Tata Nano car and a mobile phone costing less than £11. 3 and now the £23 laptop?

3. What do you see as the biggest advantages are of this new laptop?

Source:

Halliday, J. (2010). India unveils world’s cheapest laptop. Guardian.co.uk, July 23 (Retrievable online at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/23/india-unveils-cheapest-laptop)