Chips in free laptops to carry logo

In an attempt to prevent beneficiaries of its free laptop scheme from selling the product or its diversion to the open market, the Tamil Nadu government has ordered manufacturers supplying the laptops to burn their logo on the chip so that it is displayed when the machine is switched on. Similarly, the state government's logo should also be printed on the laptop's motherboard, engraved and screen printed at suitable places as per instructions of the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu Ltd (Elcot), the issuer of the tender. Elcot has issued an international competitive tender for sourcing 912,000 laptops. The free laptop computer scheme is the poll promise of the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) party headed by Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha. Over the next five years, the Tamil Nadu government expects to provide nearly 6.8 million laptops to students, involving an outlay of around Rs102 billion (Dh8.4 billion) at Rs15,000 per piece. In the first year of the programme (2011-12), 912,000 laptops are to be provided, starting in September. Jayalalitha during her meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi last week asked the central government for a special grant of Rs102 billion to implement the scheme. The tender stipulates that the laptop processor should be a minimum of Intel Pentium Dual Core P6200 or Equivalent AMD Processor (clock speed of minimum 2.1 GHZ) with 2 GB DDR3 SD RAM at 1066 Mhz speed, 14 inch screen, 320 GB hard disk drive and in-built camera. From / Gulf News