IIT Bombay’s vision of education for all needed a laptop that wouldn’t stand in the way. RDP’s laptop was co-engineered for the mission — multiple prototypes, careful system definition, and a price point that made scale possible.
| Client | Sector | Product | Scale | Era | Geography |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IIT Bombay | Higher Education | RDP laptop (laptop) | Student cohort programme | Co-engineered (2019-era) | National |
Client: IIT Bombay (Indian Institute of Technology Bombay)
Product deployed: RDP laptop (laptop)
The Challenge
Indian higher education has long struggled with a paradox: world-class curricula and an undersupplied student base that can’t always afford the hardware to access them. IIT Bombay’s mission of making quality education accessible to every Indian student — regardless of economic background — hinged on solving the laptop cost problem at scale. Off-the-shelf devices were either too expensive for the target cohort or too compromised on quality and service to stand up to a four-year degree programme.
The Deployment
RDP partnered with the IIT Bombay team to evolve a laptop specifically engineered for the programme. The development cycle was exhaustive — system analysis and definition, multiple hardware prototypes, software integration and stress-testing against the realities of a student’s daily workflow. Rather than rebadging a stock SKU, RDP treated this as a clean-sheet product build, iterating on the configuration until the right balance of performance, battery life, durability, and cost was achieved.
The Outcome
The final RDP laptop landed at a price point that the mission could sustain, without the compromises that usually come with ultra-affordable laptops. The programme now runs on a device that was built, from first principles, for the students who use it — not retrofitted from a commercial SKU.
It has been my dream to come up with a high quality laptop at low price. I believe that this laptop meets that expectation.
Dr. Kannan M, IIT Bombay
The Product
The RDP laptop is a purpose-engineered student laptop — lightweight, energy-efficient, and built in India. It is the outcome of a co-development cycle rather than a stock product, and it remains RDP’s reference example of hardware built to serve a mission, not a market segment.
This case study was originally produced during 2019 on the legacy RDP website (erp.rdp.in) and has been refreshed for the 2026 editorial programme. Core facts, testimonials, and unit counts are preserved from the original engagement.
About RDP
Related Reading
- NEP 2020 and the Class-3 AI Mandate: What Schools Actually Need
- The 10/10/10 Mission: Why India Needs 10,000 AI-Ready Institutions
- From AICTE Year of AI to the Skills Ecosystem: The ITI Angle
RDP Technologies Limited is a Hyderabad-based Indian OEM with 14 years of track record, 100,000+ devices shipped, and over 1 million end users across government, education, and enterprise deployments. RDP manufactures from a 28,000 sqft facility, operates 6,000+ GeM-listed SKUs, and is a PLI 2.0 beneficiary with ISO 9001, BIS, and MeitY certifications. Strategic technology partnerships with Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, and Microsoft underpin the product roadmap across desktops, laptops, mini PCs, thin clients, workstations, AI PCs, and servers. Explore the product range or talk to our team.