Global personal computer manufacturers Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Acer have been identified as the first two vendors to supply laptops for Tamil Nadu Government's free distribution of laptops to students of Government and Government-aided schools and colleges.

For the project's inauguration, which is expected in a month or two, HP will supply 5,000 laptops while Acer will provide 1,600 laptops, according to sources. For the remaining 9.06 lakh laptops to be supplied during the current financial year, the bidding process is still going on, the sources said.

Lower price

Each laptop will cost nearly Rs 14,000, which is lower than the Rs 15,000 anticipated for the configuration that was prescribed in the tender. The specification includes 14-inch LED display and pre-loaded operating system of dual booting — Windows starter edition with Anti Virus for one year licence and Linux. While the market price for such a configuration could be nearly Rs 21,000, the State government managed to get it for Rs 14,000, the sources said.

The sources said the 6,600 units will be given at the inauguration that will happen across all the districts. The rest will be distributed in a phased manner.

9.12 lakh laptops

The laptop project was one of the major poll promises of the ruling AIADMK government. The State-run Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (Elcot) 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.

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 one lakh units a year and should have sold at least 50,000 laptops in any one of the previous three audited years, says the tender.

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