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I recently purchased an AVR Development Board from the NSK electronics located at S.P. Road, Bangalore, opp. to Vishal Electronics. A development board is great way to start embedded programming, especially when you don't have much electronics component knowledge, or don't want to struggle with the PCB or breadboard. It gives you an instant jump start. The above one cost me around 550 Rs and the USB programmer comes for another 450 Rs. Though you can get an USB programmer for 370 Rs at OM electronics and a basic 40 PIN AVR prototype board at NSK electronics for 95 Rs. But I like this board, as it had many features like 7 Segment LCD, LED arrays, keyboard Matrix, RS 232 interface, Relay and Stepper motor drive using ULN2003, LCD Display connector, etc. You can read more in the attached PDF manual. The 12 V adapter cost an extra 90 Rs and the ATMega32 chip costs around 160 Rs. I am completely novice to the embedded and electronics world, so consider these prices as the MRP, you can bargain a lot. At least buying from local shops is much cheaper then those online robotics shops, who charges 3 times more + taxes + courier charges. Also for learning and hobby projects, I found AVR development boards sold at S.P. Road much more useful and cheaper. Some of the, another component prices:

• AVR development board - 550 Rs
• 40 Pin prototype board - 95 Rs
• AVR USB programmer - 370 Rs
• ATMega32 - 160 Rs
• 16x2 Character LCD - 120 Rs
• Breadboard - 55 Rs
• Resistance Pack - 25 Rs
• UNI-T digital multimeter - 95 Rs
• 40 Pin ZIP Socket - 60 Rs
• 25 Watt Soldron Iron - 150 Rs
• 12 V Adaptor - 90 Rs

If you have information about good shops, or cheaper electronics components, please do let me know.

The USB AVR programmer and development board comes with software like SinaProg, AVR Dude, AVR Studio, WinAVR. To start programming, just use a sample program and build it to create an Intel HEX file, then connect the USB cable to the laptop and USB programmer, install the USB drivers, that comes with in the CD. After that insert the micro controller into the development board, and connect the FRC cable from the USB programmer to development board in the ISP header, and use SinaProg to burn the Hex file to the micro controller.

That's it for now, Enjoy Programming!