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.