TN Floats Tender to Procure 10 Lakh Laptops for Students

IN its effort to swiftly roll out the distribution of free laptops to eligible college students promised in the 2025-26 budget, the Tamil Nadu government has floated tenders inviting bids for the procurement of 10 lakh laptops through international competitive bidding.

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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 a 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 ₹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.