... includes ridicule. Look at the headlines:
$10 laptop proves to be a damp squib (Times of India): "... the computing device is 10 inches long and 5 inches wide and has been priced at around $30 at the event. ... it [is] being projected as a laptop when it was not. ... [F]or now at least the $10-laptop turned out to be damp squib. "
India's $10 laptop sounds like a bad joke (PC World): "... we’ve yet to see an official photo of the vaporous hardware." [Update: This Hindu story has a picture.]
India's $10 Sakshat laptop announcement is a complete bust (NetBooks): "It's some second grader sitting in the back of the bus, convincing his classmates that, really, his dad used to play basketball with Michael Jordan and that, seriously, he's totally hooking up with a seventh grader over at Parkland Middle School."
And the name! "I still can’t get over that name" and "an unfortunate name" are among the polite descriptions I have seen. Our government needs some lessons in product-launching and brand building.
What worries me is that these same government geniuses are playing around with thousands of crores of rupees in fixing education.
ReplyDeleteThey could do with some lessons in logic, arithmetics etc. as well.
ReplyDeleteAtanu, it is a regenerative effect, a grinding relentless inevitability. Once a population goes below a certain quality in education and moral fiber, they will not only outbreed any practical scaleup of primary schools, but also elect wicked morons, who will then ensure that they further slide down the ignorance and immorality abyss. This geopolitical region will come apart like a pig in a blender.
ReplyDelete>This geopolitical region will come apart like a pig in a blender.
ReplyDeleteWhy just this geopolitical region? Morons breed everywhere, they vote everywhere too. It is just a matter of time before the whole mess tips onto their own heads.
Morons breed everywhere, but at few other places do they multiply by a factor of three in 50 years, and are so desperately poor and clueless. Also, a moron breeder can get away for a while if they elect leaders that plunder the world to support their electorate.
ReplyDelete>Also, a moron breeder can get away for a while if they elect leaders that plunder the world to support their electorate.
ReplyDeleteThis undermines the argument, but I am not gonna pursue it further.
I don't believe that voters in India are morons, neither are the leaders. Moral fiber, though, is a different story. But that is about not being able to control short-term impulses. Lack of control is not the same as lack of understanding.
I think this whole episode exposes the media more than the government. The level of research done by the media was absolutely shoddy, they raised the expectations themselves and when (as usual) the government could not 'meet' them, they are responding with this nonsense. You should read the ToI's coverage of Bhuvan (ISRO's upcoming mapping utility) here, dont be surprised if you find them complaining about not finding those lions in a few months.
ReplyDelete