How India brought in low-cost computing for masses

More than a decade back, C-DAC launched a word processor called LEAP and an MS-word pluggin which could help people to type in Indian languages using their computer. C-DAC used to provide a layout mapped on standard English keyboard. One could take a print-out and fix that on his/her keyboard to directly type into that language. C-DAC's original software used to support Hindi (devanagari script), Bengali, Gujarati and few more other scripts. That time there was no standard font or codes available and they had to design their own codes. Luckily life is lot simpler now with wide acceptance of Unicode model. Unicode model 6.0 now defines code for eleven Indian language scripts. Good thing about Unicode is it inherently supports transliteration between different languages. It achieves this by providing unique code to each script in a normalized fashion and by requiring that there is a mapping of the codes to English keyboard. Also Unicode Consortium is a large international body with representatives of various nations involved. It, for example, has representatives from Govt of India and India has taken active participation in codifying Indian scripts.
Due to its wide acceptance, multi-lingual support is lot easier to implement for computer applications. Most popular Computer Operating systems such as windows or Mac or android, support Unicode system today. But that is only half of the solution.
While Unicode made it easier to map the language scripts, a big hurdle for Indian users who do not know English, is about using the keyboard. The default keyboard hardware with computer is always tied to English alphabet and mapping to other language is not always tidy. For everyday use, one needs a keyboard that is designed keeping the alphabet of the language of the user in mind. But manufacturing keyboard for different languages makes the product costly, making it somewhat unaffordable for mass use.
That problem, however, can be avoided if the keyboard layout becomes completely virtual. A virtual keyboard layout is simply a Graphical interface and can be designed in software and rendered on a touch screen. So, if one can remove the traditional keyboard, supporting native language in computer is lot easier. With the recent popularity of tablets, the opportunity has presented itself! Thanks to Mr. Steve Jobs and extremely coveted design of iPad, all tablets today support only the touch screen for both display and input device. Keyboard and Mouse are cannibalized in the new world of tablets. This makes it exceedingly easy for manufacturers to create a generalized hardware assembly and produce Hindi, Bengali, Tamil or Chinese tablets without any manufacturing cost. One can develop extremely inexpensive Oriya or Telegu tablet just by enabling the specific language support in the operating system which in many cases is Android by default since it is free.

Aakash Tablet UbiSlate

In other words, tablets provide the technology solution for the problem. It is a computer connected to internet and also can speak Indian languages.
But there is the 3rd aspect that also requires to be addressed to make the tablet affordable for the mass. Govt of India's initiative with Akaash tablet is the right approach to address that dimension. In the support from the Government, Aakash manufacturers found the right incentive to engineer a truly low-cost tablet for Indian users. With Akaash the children learning in his/her vernacular now not only can communicate, he/she can use the computer in his/her language.
This will enable a large section of Indian children who were outside the expensive English school teaching. This indeed is a great example about how the technology can be used to enable the mass.