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ASIAN INNOVATION AWARDS: NOTABLE: ASIA'S INVENTORS

Computing for All

In India, the Simputer could bring the power of the computer to the poor

By Joanna Slater/BANGALORE

Issue cover-dated October 24, 2002

IN 1998, three technology-minded types met at a conference in Bangalore. A software boom was sweeping across the city, but they had another issue on their minds: Who would make the technology that the majority of Indians could use and afford? "Anybody can talk [about the problem]," recalls Swami Manohar, a computer-science professor at the prestigious Indian Institute of Science (IIS) in Bangalore. "But as technologists, we said we should actually do something about it."

Four years later, they believe they have an answer. The Simputer is a small, hand-held computer, slightly larger than a Palm Pilot, that's designed to address the needs of poorer and rural users for as little as $200. It has a built-in modem and a touch-sensitive screen that allows users to navigate its functions and enter text if needed through the use of icons and an on-screen keyboard. While it wasn't an award winner in this years Asian Innovation Awards, the judges said it deserves a special mention.

The Simputer's inventors have packed it with easy-to-use features. It runs on ordinary batteries; it can speak to users in a variety of local languages, such as Hindi and Tamil; most importantly, it features a slot for a smart card that holds personal information and allows a single Simputer to be shared by a whole community.

Typical personal computers are "simple machines that require sophisticated users," says Manohar. "Our machine has to be sophisticated so users don't have to be."

Don't mistake it for a poor-man's Palm Pilot, adds Vinay Deshpande, chief executive of Bangalore-based Encore Software, one of the makers of the Simputer. "This is not a lifestyle device," he says. "It's more like a community digital assistant."

Manohar and Deshpande say the Simputer, which uses open-source Linux software as its operating system, has unlimited applications in everything from micro-credit to education to e-governance. Rural Indians can use it to track agricultural commodity prices or look up health information on its Internet browser, with the machine reading the data aloud. Similarly, consumer-goods companies and small banks might use it to track sales and deposits in far-flung outlets.

The Simputer stems from an unusual collaborative experiment: It doesn't have a single inventor, it has several. Its technology is not owned by a company or individual, but by a not-for-profit organization, the Simputer Trust. Its creation involved cooperation between a university and a publicly listed software firm.

After meeting at the 1998 conference, Manohar, Deshpande and Vijay Chandru, another academic at the IIS in Bangalore, got together to see if they could create a device that would be universally accessible and also commercially viable. The core team expanded to seven, pulling in students and experts as the need arose. The project subsisted on free labour, contributions from Encore and donated services.

CAN THEY DELIVER?
When the first Simputer prototype arrived in the spring of 2001, it received a torrent of publicity. But turning that prototype into a replicable product proved difficult, largely due to a lack of cash. Potential manufacturers wanted orders of thousands or more. Customers were sceptical about its capabilities. Launch deadlines repeatedly came and went.

Today, there are two firms working on separate but parallel tracks to promote the Simputer: Deshpande's Encore Software and PicoPeta Simputers, a Bangalore start-up run by Manohar and V. Vinay, another IIS professor. The two became what they hope are the first of many "licensees" authorized by the Simputer Trust to make the machines by paying a token fee of $25,000 (Deshpande, Vinay and Manohar are also trustees of the trust).

While both firms intend to stay true to the Simputer's original mission, there have been some concessions to commercial necessity. Encore, for example, plans to offer souped-up Simputers with high-resolution colour screens and enhanced memory for a more expensive price tag of $375.

Both Encore and PicoPeta say the next three months are critical for the Simputer's future as the first trial orders are tested by customers and the firms attempt to turn expectations into reality. Neither seems particularly worried about their friendly competition to get the device to market. Says Deshpande, "The requirement is so large that neither of us can hope to cater to it."
 

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