The Government will launch a new version of the tablet personal computer named 'Aakash-II' in the month of April this year. The Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibbal, while talking to reporters in the capital on Monday, said that Aakash-II is the improved version of the existing one which was earlier launched last year. He said that the upgraded version will take care of the problems identified in the present version.

The government had commissioned Datawind, the creator of Aakash to make one lakh such computers. However, after technical problems cited by IIT Jodhpur, the supply has been blocked for the time being. The minister said that the upgraded version will take care of the needs of customers. Mr. Sibbal also said that industrial training institutes have been involved in order to upgrade the tablet PC.

Datawind has supplied 30,000 PCs till now. Mr. Sibbal said that the rest 70,000 PCS will have the upgraded version of Aakash-II. The device, costing Rs 2000, was developed as part of the “National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technologies” of the Ministry of human resource development.