So I know this happened a while ago, but I’ve been lax on blogging about BoP lately, since I moved.
India decided not to fund Negroponte’s mission to bridge the digital divide. I think this just might put the nail in the coffin for One Laptop per Child.
The Indian Ministry of Education dismissed the laptop as “pedagogically suspect”. I think that this is the best move for India– I wonder how much of the response was attributed to the appeasement of Bill Gates, who has a strong philanthropic presence in India, but disagrees with the OLPC vision.
Having Nigeria as a strategic partner is great, but a $1M order is a drop in the bucket to what is needed to bridge the Digital Divide. Moreover, there is a lot needed in Africa in the short term to improve the lives of its inhabitants– eradicating the disease trifecta (AIDS/TB/Malaria) and preventing famines. You need access to safe drinking water before you need a crank laptop.
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