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Time of India
24-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
TN floats tender for mid-spec laptops to give students free
Chennai: The state govt has floated an international tender to procure 10 lakh laptops to distribute free to students. The govt had earlier announced that 20 lakh laptops will be provided to college students over two years. Following a recent meeting with deputy chief minister Udhayanidhi Stalin, the Electronic Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT) floated tenders on Friday to procure 10 lakh mid-spec laptops in the first phase. Officials said each laptop will be procured at a cost of about 20,000, with 2,000 crore in this budget and equal funding expected in the next budget. The laptops specified generally cost between 30,000 and 35,000 in the market. Officials with ELCOT said the contractor must provide at least one lakh laptops for the tenders to be valid. The specifications mandate firms to supply laptops with any processor equal to or above Intel Core I3 or AMD Ryzen, with a minimum RAM of eight gigabytes. The laptops shall be 14 inches or 15.6 inches, and they must have at least one USB C type port (for fast file transfers). "In the past, the govt provided the most basic version of Pentium laptops with only dual-core processors and 2GB RAM. The ones given now are the latest generation four-core processors with eight GB RAM. "This will help students edit videos and also play 4K videos on the laptop without issues. We are giving higher RAM to ensure it stays fast for many years," said the official. The laptops will also have modern and faster solid-state drive hard drives and a 720p HD video camera. The students will also get a free one-year subscription to Microsoft Office 365, including Word, Excel, and Teams. Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with Brother's Day wishes , messages and quotes !
New Indian Express
26-04-2025
- Business
- New Indian Express
‘High-speed internet for families at Rs 200 per month soon': Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan
CHENNAI: I-T Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan said the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT) will roll out the distribution of free laptops (or tablets) to 10 lakh college students. The scheme was announced by Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu during the budget. He said the state will distribute laptops or tablets to 20 lakh students over the next two years and allocated Rs 2,000 crore for 2025-26. Rajan said in the Assembly on Friday that his ministry aims to complete its ambitious optical fibre project by the end of this year. The project, led by Tamil Nadu FibreNet Corporation Limited, involves laying 57,500 km of optical fibre to connect 12,525 villages with 1 Gbps bandwidth. The minister said he expected high-speed internet, offering speeds of up to 100 Mbps at Rs 200 per month, to be available to households soon. Rajan announced measures to gradually integrate e-Services with WhatsApp. The initiative is expected to provide easy access to over 260 government services via the messaging app. In its first phase, 50 services will be available, including utility bill payments. A new e-KYC platform will be rolled out to streamline beneficiary identification processes for Aadhaar-linked welfare schemes. Referring to his remarks made earlier this week about lesser fund allocation for his department, Rajan clarified on Friday that it was not a new concern that he raised. He pointed out that the department has been receiving similar levels of funding over the past 12 years, and even when he served as finance minister in the present government.
