Primary Education through

Digital Slate and Telecom

(PEDISTEL)
Dr. Abhay Gandhi
Visvesvaraya National Institute of
Technology, NAGPUR 440010 INDIA
asgandhi@ece.vnit.ac.in

Agenda

Objectives
Challenges
Technology and features
Budget and development plan

Objectives
Development of low cost electronic slate
with distance education capability.
Development of complete distance
education system using the electronic
slate.
To launch the education solution on a large
scale.

Challenges
No access to education for rural and tribal
children.
No school / school faraway / daily
commuting not possible.
Difficult access to quality education for
urban slum dwellers.
Children of migrant labour, construction
workers do not stay at one place.

Challenges (Contd.)
To provide infrastructure for a few people
in each village is not economically feasible.
Steady brain-drain from villages to cities
over the last 6 decades.
Talent pool that can teach better is
concentrated in cities and towns.
Teachers unwilling to stay in villages.

PEDISTEL - Technology
Students device

Teachers setup

Detachable
Solar panel
Digital
slate

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Digital Electronic Slate

features

Digital Electronic Slate

features
Detachable solar panel
Winding spring / animal or human power
for battery charging.
Touch screen, web-cam, speaker, mic
Full duplex voice(ASVD or DSVD) or
GPRS/3G/landline connectivity.
E-book reader, video playback, drawing
etc. Useful for higher education also.

Digital slate features

(contd.)
Ability to store off-line content for
example home work.
Minimum 3 hr use per day.
Patent filed for the electronic slate.
(Application no. 1625/MUM/2009
date: 10/07/2009)

Digital slate block

diagram
1
Camera
2

Microphone

Application
Specific
Processor

Internet connectivity
(MODEM)

3
Touch screen
4

Power supply + Battery

LCD screen
Flash Memory
Speaker

5
Solar Panel

Human / Animal driven

generator

Teachers setup
Training software on Laptop/
Desktop PC
Web-cam, tablet or touch screen.
Display divided in nine parts to
handle 9 students at a time.
Contents on slate or students face
shown in the window allocated.

Who will be teachers?

9:1 ratio means a large number of
teachers required.
College students (engg., medical, law,
arts, science, commerce, pharmacy)
Housewives, retired personnel
Physically challenged persons

Team and resources

VNIT- Department of Electronics,
VLSI Lab
A. S. Gandhi (Communications and
overall solution development)
Prof. R. M. Patrikar (VLSI issues)
Ravindra B. Keskar (Web solution)

Team and resources

MTech(VLSI Design),
MTech(Computer Science)
and BTech students.
Currently, one engineer for hardware
and one for software is proposed.
Perhaps, the no. needs to be
increased.

Budget (3 years)

Sr.
Item
no.
I) Components procurement

Estimated cost
(Rs.)
4,00,000

II) Assembly of demo units

3,60,000

III) HDL environment

7,00,000

IV) Testing equipment

7,00,000

V) Web-based solution

18,00,000

VI) Field testing and Concept testing

10,00,000

VII) Salary of project engineers

14,40,000

VIII) Contingency, Consumables, Travel &

Miscellaneous

Total:

6,00,000
70,00,000

I)Components
procurement
Sr.
no.

Estimated cost
(Rs.)

Display or monitor panel

Touch screen

20,000

GSM/GPRS/Broadband modem

20,000

Microphone and speaker unit with

USB interface
Camera with USB interface

10,000

5
6

Component

1,00,000

20,000
1,50,000

Memory, FPGA and other digital

ICs
USB 2.0 IP core licence

Power supply circuit and battery

10,000

Solar panel

20,000
Total:

50,000

4,00,000

II)Assembly of demo
units
Sr.
no.

Item

Estimated cost (Rs.)

1 PCB layout design

60,000

2 PCB fabrication

1,00,000

3 Enclosure design

1,00,000

4 Enclosure fabrication

1,00,000
Total:

3,60,000

III) HDL (Verilog)

Environment
Sr.
no.

Item

Estimated cost
(Rs.)

1 Code development

2,00,000

2 Simulation tool

2,00,000

3 FPGA Implementation System

3,00,000

Total:

7,00,000

IV) Testing Equipment

Sr.
no.

Equipment

Estimated cost
(Rs.)

1 USB Protocol Analyzer

4,50,000

2 Mixed Mode Digital Storage

Oscilloscope

2,50,000
Total:

7,00,000

V) Web based solution

Sr.
no.

Item

Estimated cost (Rs.)

1 Web-server for education service

provision
2 Data base server for CRM solution

2,00,000

3 Web application development tools

2,00,000

4 Networking and Internet access

equipment
5 Tutor training and content development

4,00,000

1,00,000

Total:

9,00,000
18,00,000

VI)Marketing
Methodology
Sr.
no.

Item

Estimated cost (Rs.)

1 Field testing

5,00,000

2 Concept Testing

5,00,000
Total:

10,00,000

VII)Salary of project
engineers
Sr.
no.

Item

Estimated cost (Rs.)

1 Hardware development engineer

7,20,000

2 Software development engineer

7,20,000
Total:

14,40,000

VIII)Contingency,
Consumables, Travel &
Miscellaneous
Sr.
no.

Item

Contingency

1,50,000

Consumables

1,50,000

Travel

2,00,000

Miscellaneous

1,00,000

Estimated cost
(Rs.)

Total:

6,00,000

Recurring budget year

wise break up
Manpower
Sr.
no.
1

Item

Hardware
development
engineer
Software
development
engineer
Total

I year

II year

III Year

2,40,000

2,40,000

2,40,000

2,40,000

2,40,000

2,40,000

4,80,000

4,80,000

4,80,000

Recurring budget year

wise break up
Sr.
no.

Other recurring
expenses

I year

II year

III Year

Contingency

50,000

50,000

50,000

Consumables

50,000

50,000

50,000

Travel

1,00,000

50,000

50,000

Miscellaneous

50,000

25,000

25,000

2,50,000

1,75,000

1,75,000

Total:

Summary of recurring budget

Item

I year

II year

III Year

4,80,000

4,80,000

4,80,000

Contingency

50,000

50,000

50,000

Consumables

50,000

50,000

50,000

1,00,000

50,000

50,000

50,000

25,000

25,000

7,30,000

6,55,000

6,55,000

Manpower

Travel
Miscellaneous
Total:

Financial outlay
(year-wise)
I Year
Non recurring
Recurring
Total:

II Year

III Year

21,60,000

18,00,000

10,00,000

7,30,000

6,55,000

6,55,000

28,90,000

24,55,000

16,55,000

Business model and

costing
Target cost of digital slate Rs. 500
to 2500 (US$ 10 to 50). Possible due
to large volumes.
Franchisee model for urban area
NGO+SHG for rural area
Web based CRM solution.

Business model and

costing
NRE Cost (Development cost)
Operational expenses

Teachers and support staff salary

Telephone usage charges
Devices (Students and Teachers)
Device loss, damage, maintenance.

Development plan
I year: Prototype slate to be
assembled, Verilog code to be ready.
II Year: Web-based solution to be
developed. Pilot project to be ready.
III Year: Full deployment across the
country.

Thank you!