Economics of the one Laptop per Child in India

Abstract

Much controversy has surrounded the adoption of the one laptop per child (OLPC) programme in India. In the debate, however, an economics perspective has rarely been adopted. In what follows, accordingly, I use some basic economic principles to analyse the full-scale adoption of OLPC laptops in all primary schools in India. Two specific questions are posed. One of them is how much of the country's total education budget will be spent on the endeavour? Then I ask whether such a large expenditure on laptops can be justified in the Indian context?