Students across the country will be able to buy specially designed laptops at affordable prices with the Government planning to provide them the gadget at around Rs 400.

Research in this direction is being already carried out at the Indian Institute of Sciences in Bangalore and IIT-Madras to develop a special laptop at a cost of $10 for students to help them excel in studies.

"The government aims to provide 10-dollar laptops to students and research in this direction is on," said D Purandeshwari, Minister of State for Human Resources Development in New Delhi.

The initiative has been taken by government to enable students to make the most out of Information Technology, which is emerging as a catalyst for the country's socio-economic development, she said.

Her announcement came at the inaugural session of 'e-India 2008,' an international conference of IT solution providers and government agencies to facilitate practices of e-governance and digital learning in the country.

Holding that the Information and Communication Technology will play a key role in the country's education system, the minister said: "in the coming years, thrust will be on using ICT to strengthen various mode of learning both in school and at higher education levels.

"To deliver the benefits of ICT in the learning process, a new scheme namely 'National Mission in Education through ICT' will be launched, with the objective of providing connectivity to the learners to the 'Knowledge World' in cyberspace," she said.