Fourth Generation Aakash Tablet Coming in January 2014: Kapil Sibal

Indian Union Communications and Information Technology minister Kapil Sibal has reportedly said that the fourth generation Aakash tablet would be made available in January 2014.

Sibal said at the recently concluded Indian telecom summit organized by CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) that the fourth generation of the central government's flagship tablet Aakash specifications have been finalised and ready for manufacturing, reported PTI. He added that they will call for tenders and make the device available to the people by January 2014.

After the Indian government released the proposed specifications of Aakash 4 in late June, around 12 companies across the globe have shown interest in building the flagship tablet until now.

Indian Government run DEITy (Department of Electronics and Information Technology) had released the proposed technical specifications of the fourth generation Aakash a few weeks ago.

The upcoming new generation Aakash 4 tablet will sport a 7.0-inch LCD display with 800x480p resolutions and is expected to run on two operating systems - Android V4.2.1 Jelly Bean and the ubiquitous free OS Linux Ubuntu.

Under the hood, fourth generation Aakash tablet is expected to pack a 1GB DDR3 RAM and at least 4GB inbuilt memory with options of expansion up to 32GB through microSD card. The proposed spec list also says that the device must house a 0.3-megapiel camera, 3-Axis accelerometer and 4G connectivity support (via external dongle) with calling options.  

Apart from Aakash tablet, the union government is also reportedly contemplating to manufacture and sell affordable smartphones with price under $100(around ₹6,000). They are planning to distribute a handset to female member of every household who have worked for minimum 100 days last year under the rural employment guarantee scheme.

Proposed Specifications of Aakash 4: