Latest news with #ElectronicsCorporationofTamilNadu
New Indian Express
24-05-2025
- Business
- New Indian Express
TN floats tender to procure 10 lakh laptops for students
CHENNAI: In its effort to swiftly roll out the distribution of free laptops to eligible college students as promised in its 2025-26 budget, the Tamil Nadu government has floated a tender inviting bids for the procurement of 10 lakh laptops through international competitive bidding. The tender documents showed that the government intends to provide college students with laptops of fairly high specifications, including 8 GB RAM, 256 GB Solid State Drive, Integrated Graphics supporting 128 MB VRAM or higher, display of 14 or 15.6 inch and any processor equivalent to or above Intel i3 or AMD Ryzen3 with minimum of four cores, eight threads and hyperthreading feature, and launched between January 2022 and June 2024. Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu had said that the government aimed to distribute 20 lakh laptops over a two-year period with an allocation of Rs 2,000 crore for 2025-26. While the government had earlier announced that the college students would be able to choose whether they wanted a laptop or tablet, the tender documents indicate that the government is planning to distribute only laptops at the moment. Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu, coming under the Department of Information Technology, which has floated the tender, said any interested bidder should be able to supply a minimum of one lakh laptops along with laptop bags. Sources said multiple vendors could be chosen to supply the 10 lakh laptops in a short period of time. With the 2026 Assembly election less than a year away, the government intends to roll out the distribution at the earliest. Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin chaired a meeting in this regard on Monday.
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.
