US Edition While the prototype device looks like an iPad, it's just a fourteenth of the cost.
The basic touch-screen tablet could be in production by 2011.
The tablet can be used for word processing, web browsing and videoconferencing. It has a solar power option too – important for India's energy-starved hinterlands – though that add-on costs extra.
"This is our answer to MIT's $100 computer," human resource development minister Kapil Sibal said as he unveiled the device.
In 2005, Nicholas Negroponte – cofounder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab – unveiled a prototype of a $100 laptop for children in the developing world. India rejected that as too expensive and embarked on a multiyear effort to develop a cheaper option of its own.
Negroponte's laptop ended up costing about $200, but in May his non-profit association, One Laptop Per Child, said it plans to launch a basic tablet computer for $99.
Sibal turned to students and professors at India's elite technical universities to develop the $35 tablet after receiving a "lukewarm" response from private sector players. He hopes to get the cost down to $10 eventually.
Mamta Varma, a ministry spokeswoman, said falling hardware costs and intelligent design make the price tag plausible. The tablet doesn't have a hard disk, but instead uses a memory card, much like a mobile phone. The tablet design cuts hardware costs, and the use of open-source software also adds to savings, she said.
Varma said several global manufacturers, including at least one from Taiwan, have shown interest in making the low-cost device, but no manufacturing or distribution deals have been finalised. She declined to name any of the companies.
India plans to subsidise the cost of the tablet for its students, bringing the purchase price down to around $20.
The project is part of an ambitious education technology initiative, which also aims to bring broadband connectivity to India's 25,000 colleges and 504 universities and make study materials available online.
So far nearly 8,500 colleges have been connected and nearly 500 web and video-based courses have been uploaded on YouTube and other portals, the Ministry said.