As with most things coming out of India, I would take this with a grain of salt. There've been promises of things like a $10 laptop and a $35 tablet in the past. When (if ever) they actually materialized, however, the price was either much higher or the quality/features much lower than promised.
Relatedly, this is a big difference between India and China. In China, when the CPC decides to do something, it happens, no matter how many heads roll in the process. One of India's biggest failures has been its inability to keep up with its promises.
In China, when the CPC decides to do something, it happens, no matter how many heads roll in the process.
Sadly, 'heads rolling' is closer to the truth than you probably meant. Human rights abuses of workers working on state-sponsored public-facing projects is common. :/
Oh, I meant it in the most literal sense possible. It is not possible to achieve the kind of breakneck-pace modernization that has taken place over the last ~30 years in a country as large and diverse as China without a very centralized, authoritarian government that doesn't fuck around.
The reason why Japan (and Taiwan and South Korea, to a lesser extent) was able to modernize at a similar rate from ~1950-1990 was because of its ethnic and cultural homogeneity. They technically have a democracy, but everyone is so alike that, in practice, the same political party (the LDP) stayed in power for that entire period. There is no way in hell that a similar situation could occur in China.
China's modernization has no doubt come at a terrible price, albeit one that Americans, as a democratic and (supposedly) just country, are able to ignore thanks to our ability to collectively ignore the cognitive dissonance.
There is a difference between Indian companies and Indian government. Indian government is full of failures. Indian companies a little better. Tatas developed $2500 car. Tatas developed $15 water purifier that does not need electricity or expensive refills.
Consider that if you eliminate building codes, sealed windows, and the need for thermal insulation a "house" is trivial and could be made with anything from cement to adobe to some sort of lighter and stronger version of adobe made with modern materials.
I visited some houses in Costa Rica that were cinder block structures with corrugated roofs and wide bars for windows (to prevent thieves but not geckos) and these were very comfortable. Materials and construction costs couldn't have amounted to much.
I've been designing a small cheap house which I plan to build spring 2012 (after I get through the year long political process). It has become undeniably clear that building codes in most of the US result in a base cost for a house at at least 20-30k (rural mid-west prices). The laws were designed to keep landlords from renting 'inhumane' conditions, but they are applied even to those building and living in their own homes. In my town, we aren't legally allowed to have multiple homes share a kitchen and bathroom. Kitchens can only be shared by 3 adults. We can't use filtered rain water in our sinks. We can't flush our toilets with shower water (or anything other than potable drinking water). A friend of mine from India says that where he lived it was against code to flush toilets with drinking water.
To be honest, $10 laptop or $35 tablet; were Govt. funded organizations fighting for some limelight.When some politician appeared on news channels with a prototype, you know where the project was going.
This is more of Tatas attempt to fix things, but unlike Nano Car project, govt. does have some involvement here, so I am not holding my breadth.
And yeah like it or not, it is good that Govt stops if something is not popular. Thank god for that.
> In China, when the CPC decides to do something, it happens, no matter how many heads roll in the process.
You say that, but China's government is in some ways no better than India's. Take a look at the high profile, recently opened Beijing-Shanghai high speed railway - which has already had several power malfunctions in the last two weeks. [1] The CPC has its own corruption and problems as well - they're just not as obvious as India's.
Relatedly, this is a big difference between India and China. In China, when the CPC decides to do something, it happens, no matter how many heads roll in the process. One of India's biggest failures has been its inability to keep up with its promises.