India set to follow cheap car with £7 laptop

India has already given the world the 100,000-rupee (£1,450) Tata Nano car and a no-frills mobile telephone that costs less than 800 rupees.

The laptop that may be sold for less than the cost of a paperback book has been more than three years in the making.

The machine is the country’s answer to the American One Laptop per Child project, which set out to produce a computer for $100 (£68). That high-profile venture led by the scientist Nicholas Negroponte ran into problems after several companies, including the chip manufacturer Intel, refused to cooperate. As a result, the cost of Mr Negroponte’s laptop will be closer to $200.

The laptop is the result of cooperation between several of India’s elite technology institutions, including the Vellore Institute of Technology, the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and the Semi-conductor Laboratory that forms part of India’s Space Department. Private companies are also taking part.