Rs. 3,000 Tablet PC Developed For Poverty Survey
Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) has created a Rs. 3,000-tablet PC for the Ministry of Rural Development's poverty survey. According to Ashwani Kumar Datt, Chairman & Managing Director, BEL, the company would be benefited by the order for the tablets and the survey of people below the poverty line as it will fetch Rs. 1,000 crore for BEL this year. BEL registered Rs. 5,500 crore turnovers for the year ended March 2011; the 2011-12 guidance is for Rs. 6,200 crore. Majority (80 per cent) of the company's revenue comes from military supplies such as radars, detection and communication devices.
"The tablets account for a quarter of the ministry's order. The Bengaluru-based public sector defence electronics company will supply six lakh pieces this year. With the big order from the Ministry of Rural Development, the company also expects to boost its civil sector business "and this fiscal should see a relatively better (but one-time) civilian contribution than in other years," Datt added.
The new tablet PC holds importance for BEL as they were able to evolve it in a short period of time. The challenge was to do something extremely good, designing it in four and a half months and at a low price.
The device was developed at a small plant that was added to BEL's Mass Manufacturing Facility in Bengaluru at a cost of Rs. 7 crore. The defence electronics behemoth is likely to make a further investment of Rs. 20 crore, apart from tapping capacities at Ghaziabad and Panchkula. Powered by the Android 2.2 version, the tablet comes equipped with solar-backed battery to allow data to be stored and uploaded in real time to a central server.
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