The nonprofit Raspberry Pi Foundation has just launched their second “use and throw” personal computer the Model B which you can buy for only $35 (Rs 1900). It has Linux, Ethernet networking (so you can get on the internet), USB ports, Bluetooth, a 1 GHz ARM processor, 512 MB RAM and is the size of a credit card. All you need to make it work are a TV screen (it has HDMI so your HD TV will work perfectly with it), a keyboard and a mouse. Download a free Linux browser and you are online and you have a computer. The little marvel is as capable as anything you can buy for 25 – 50,000 rupees because most of what you do online is as good as on a high end laptop!

Imagine if we could give everyone a little computer like this to learn, play and work. All you need is a TV which most people already have. The Raspberry Pi (what a quirky name though) foundation has already sold over 1 m of the little devices and I am sure will sell many more. They have a Raspberry Pi Store for apps and the project is nonprofit and open source. It has already been used in balloons to collect data, sent to space and generally used as a disposable computer in many scientific experiments. I can’t wait to get my hands on one!