The Kerala State Financial Enterprises (KSFE) will join hands with Kudumbasree and other agencies to bridge the digital divide by distributing laptops to indigent students, Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac has said.
Dr Isaac told reporters here on Tuesday that the KSFE did not aim to reap any profit and was only rendering its social responsibility to support the e-learning system. The 45-lakh Kudumbasree neighbourhood group members would be the main beneficiaries of the scheme.
The KSFE would launch a chitty scheme for ₹15,000 in which members would have to remit ₹500 per month. But the total remittance had been pegged at ₹14,250 and on paying the first three instalments, laptops specified by the Education Department for school students would be given to the beneficiaries.
The KSFE would also remit the last three instalments for those making the payment without default. Elected representatives, local bodies, and voluntary organisations could also chip in by donating funds.
If any member joining the chitty did not need a laptop, she could demand the money after remitting the 13th instalment and would get ₹15,408. A member claiming the money after clearing the 25th instalment would get ₹16,777 and the final settlement, after 30 instalments, would be ₹16,922.
No security would be needed to be furnished for getting the laptop. The members as well as the neighbourhood groups should ensure the repayment of instalments. Three thousand five hundred chitty schemes would be conducted by including 1,05,000 members in the first phase.
The scheme would be implemented through the local KSFE branches. It would also support local bodies for installing television sets in public places where students could gather for lessons. Matysafed also came forward to avail itself of the scheme for installing television sets in libraries and reading rooms in the coastal belt.
The KSFE would also join hands with the Backward Classes Development Corporation and also the SC/ST Welfare Department to provide laptops to students belonging to those categories, Dr Isaac said.