It seemed like a bit of a stretch from the beginning, but it looks like India’s $35 Android tablet is intent on proving the skeptics wrong. The Indian government has just announced that it’s awarded the manufacturing contract to HCL Technologies (makers of the once world’s cheapest laptop), and that the first batch of tablets are slated to be available by January 10th. That initial run will reportedly only include the 7-inch model that we’ve been seeing all along, but there’s also apparently 5-inch and 9-inch versions planned for launch at a later date. We also presume that the tablet is still hanging onto that $35 price tag (for university students, at least), but that key detail is curiously absent from this latest announcement.

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