TN allocates 49 acre land to Foxconn: Industries Minister

Tamil Nadu Government has earmarked 49 acre of land to electronic equipment maker Foxconn, Industries Minister M C Sampath said today.
Participating in the flagship event of industry body Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), "Connect 2017", here, the Minister said the government has cleared land proposals for the Taiwan-based electronics major.
The government has cleared 49 land for Foxconn for expansion in their existing place itself based on the their assurance that they would generate employment to the tune of 30,000 in three years, Sampath told reporters.
Foxconn had already employed 7,000 people in the State and had informed the government that the company will add another 5,000 new jobs by January (2018), he said.

Foxconn India has two manufacturing units at Sriperumbudur near Chennai which began operations in 2006. The facilities were set up at an investment of Rs 850 crore and was employing 6,000 people when production was at its peak.
The company faced some labour unrest following the management's decision to suspend production at the facility as Nokia one of its largest customers excluded the Chennai facility from the deal it signed with Microsoft.

Earlier, in his address, Information Technology Minister M Manikandan said the government has purchased 5.16 lakh laptops costing Rs 800 crore to the exchequer under the the free laptop scheme.

The distribution of free laptops to students was one of the pet projects of ruling AIADMK government which was formally launched by the late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in 2011.
There are 32.35 lakh laptop computers that have been supplied to students at free of cost from 2011-12 to 2015-16, he said.
"The total expenditure is Rs 4,893 crore", he said.
For the supply of laptops under the sixth phase, he said, the balance requirement of 5.16 lakh laptop computers at a cost of Rs 800 crore have been purchased and the supply was goin on.