Personal Computer (PC) maker Acer has bagged the Rs 30 crore contract for supply of 15,000 laptops under a government sponsored scheme in Odisha.
Delivering on one of its key poll promises, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) government will distribute these laptops to the meritorious students, who passed the +2 board examination this year, free of cost.
The government has been giving these doles to the students for past five years.
The procurement cost of laptops is Rs 20,146 (including, GST) per unit. The laptops are being distributed under a special programme, Biju Yuva Sashaktikaran Yojana, an initiative under the Odisha Youth Policy, 2013.
The promise of distributing laptops has helped BJD government to woo youths who have backed the ruling party in its win in the assembly and Lok Sabha elections in 2014. Earlier, the Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan governments had distributed free laptops to students.
In 2016, leading computer manufacturer Hewlett-Packard (HP) had bagged the contract from the Odisha government for supply of laptops.
This year, two bids were received in response to a request for proposal (RFP) floated by the state information technology (IT) department. HP was the only competitor to Acer.
The Technical Committee and State Level Procurement Committee constituted by the IT Department to finalise the deal evaluated the responses of the bidders.
A technical committee was formed for evaluation of the technical details of the laptops under the chairmanship of the Director IIIT and included senior officials of National Informatics Centre (NIC), Software Technological Parks of India (STPI) and Odisha Computer Application Centre (OCAC). Similarly, the State Level Procurement Committee was headed by State IT secretary with representatives from the law, finance and higher education departments.
"It is ensured that the bidder has an adequate presence in Odisha with experienced manpower for providing service in all 30 districts. The work order has been issued to the company. They will be delivering the laptops soon," said an IT department official.