India will launch a $35 computing device on October 5, 2011 said the country’s Minister of Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal.

The device will be available in 5 inch, 7 inch, and 9 inch form factor. It will be touchscreen. It will be packed with internet browsers, PDF reader, video conferencing facilities, open office, sci-lab, media player, remote device management capability, multimedia input-output interface option, and multiple content viewer. It will also have a built-in keyboard along with a 2 GB RAM memory, wi-fi connectivity, USB port and powered by a 2-watt system to suit poor power-supply areas.

The device will be made available to all students from primary schools to universities, said Sibal.

India’s has said for the past two years that the computing device will launch “next month”, but said that this time it will be for real.

The device, which is being billed as the cheapest computer globally, is expected to bring immense benefits to the students and will be connected to the net and perform “all the functions that any other computer can perform. That’s an enormously empowering tool”, he said.

Sibal said the device can also be used to root out corruption from the country.

“Much of the talk of corruption that we have had in the recent past will be dealt with through initiative of IT. What we need to do is to ensure the scope of human intervention which is the scope of all corruption is dealt with and IT plays an important role in finding solutions and we are in the process of doing it,” he said.