TN to sell desktops for Rs 12,000

The Tamil Nadu government’s IT ministry had requested the Union government to extend financial support to the tune of Rs 310 crore for its two e-governance projects. Meanwhile, to increase IT penetration in the state, the government is planning to sell desktop computers which would cost less than Rs 12,000.

In her inaugural speech at Citizen Empowerment Through Information Technology (CETIT), organised by FICCI and Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (Elcot), state IT minister Poongothai Aladi Aruna said the government had written a letter to the Union government to support two e-governance projects, which are proposed at schools and at the social welfare department with an outlay of Rs 310 crore.

Five districts from the state are participating in the pilot, where 75 per cent of the government services are offered electronically.

The Minister said that the Union government had sanctioned Rs 55.8 crore for setting up a second data centre in the state and Rs 181.69 crore to interconnect the state capital with all the district head quarters.

Meanwhile, as part of its plan to increase IT penetration in the state, Elcot is planning to sell desktop computers for less than Rs 12,000 under the Household Desktop Scheme, said Elcot managing director Santhosh Babu.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of CETIT, he said the agency would target the middle class and lower middle class population in the state.

The corporation is planning to procure 100,000 desktops for which it is planning to call tenders next week, Babu said.

Elcot had earlier launched a laptop scheme targeting students. “So far, we have sold around 3,000 laptops. We have found financing as a key issue. To address it, the agency is studying few models,” he said, while declining to make elaborate further.

Commenting on the mobile-governance project, which was announced by the IT minister in the state Assembly last week, Babu said the agency was talking to all the mobile operators for the project, which would enable the citizens of Chennai to pay electricity bills, water tax and corporation related payments. This would be a pilot. Based on the success, the service will be extended to other parts of the state and more public sector utilities will be brought into the net, Babu said. The technology would be developed by Defiance, a Hinduja Group company.

“The technology is ready. We are waiting for a clearance from the Reserve Bank of India since bank gateways are going to be used,” he said.