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The Tamil Nadu Government will commence distribution of free laptops from September 15 to students of Government and Government-aided Schools and Colleges. The scheme will involve an outlay of Rs 10,200 crore. And, these laptops could be pre-loaded with educational content to help students.
While the State Government has said that laptops will provide level-playing fields, develop skills and improve human resources in consonance with the ‘millennium development goals,' the mobile device should replace notebooks and books. “It is sad to see students carrying heavy loads in their backpacks. Students of some private schools carry only a laptop, why not in government schools,” said a teacher working in a city government school.
As a first step of this pre-election poll promise, the State-run Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (Elcot) has issued a global tender seeking rate contract for 9.12 lakh laptops to be supplied in the current financial year. This is the first phase of providing 68 lakh laptops to students in the State in the next five years that could cost nearly Rs 10,200 crore. The Chief Minister, Ms J. Jayalalithaa, recently sought grant from the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, for this.
Nearly 20 per cent of the total laptops to be shipped in the country this financial year could possibly be to one source – the Tamil Nadu Government. Last year, 30 lakh laptops were shipped by various vendors, while this year it could be over 45 lakh, including the likely order from the Tamil Nadu Government, according to an industry source.
“We have been anticipating this tender, which will set a precedent for other state governments to follow,” said Mr S. Rajendran, Chief Marketing Officer, Acer India Pvt Ltd, a leading laptop manufacturer.
A pre-bid meeting is happening this week in which all issues, including the delivery schedule, will be taken up, he said.
A company need not have a manufacturing base in India — it could import, but would need to have a representative in India. The bidder should have annual manufacturing capacity of at least 1,00,000 units a year and should have sold at least 50,000 laptops in any one of the previous three audited years, says the tender.
Good bargain
A laptop could cost Rs 15,000 with the prescribed specification that includes a LED 14 inch display and pre-loaded operating system of dual booting - Windows starter edition with Anti Virus for one year licence and Linux. This is nearly Rs 7,000 cheaper than the market price, said Mr Sumanta Mukherjee, Lead PC Analyst at Cyber Media Research.
“The order will not only give a huge fillip to the PC manufacturing but also help the society with a huge support system to come up,” he said. The only issue that could be worrying is if the Centre does not provide the necessary grant for the scheme, he said.
Traceability
To prevent misuse of laptops such as unauthorised sale by the beneficiaries or diversion to the open market, the bidders should provide an on-screen display of Tamil Nadu Government logo on switching the laptop. This can be inbuilt in the chip, the tender says.
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