Free Computers for Students in Assam! Yes u read that right..........

Its true that since last year the Govt. of Assam has been giving away branded PC's from brand such as Wipro, Acer, etc.. to the students of the State who have appeared for their Class 10 Board Exams (HSLC) and have successfully scored 60% or above marks. The PC's have a well to do configuration with 256MB of RAM, 40GB HDD, 52x Optical Drive, 56k internal Modem, 15inch CRT, Stereo speakers, FDD, Optical mouse & keyboard(internet ready) all powered by a 1.7 GHZ AMD Sampron, preloaded with Fedora Core 4. This year the Govt. beefed up the HDD to a standard 80GB and replaced the processor with that of a 2 GHZ Celeron. The Govt. is also giving free courses to the students for learning Computers. I was among the first to recieve one of those................................

I feel that its a remarkable feat undertaken by the Govt., which surely deserves a mention here. I don't know if any other state is undertaking sucha step(if they are than it is good).

well....Goa has been doing this for the past 3 years...the cyberage scheme...i had got a HP d260 last year in the XIIth.
Config: 2.13 Ghz Celeron D, 128 MB DDR RAM, 865 Mobo, APC UPS, & all the rest...(mouse, monitor, speakers ...etc) & also a HP printer, modem
But it has limited upgradability....no AGP / PCI-e slot... :-(

this year people have got P4's with 256 mb RAM, laser mice, pendrives etc...

Good for the students, since the criteria for getting a PC is minimal, just 60%. Smart scheme by the govt, since its a big oppurtunity to rake in large amounts of money. If they give scholarship to students, which usually happens, then there is no way to pocket the money, because the total amount of money that would go to the students can be exactly calculated. So all the money sanctioned for scholarship had to be given to the students, and the govt officials are left licking their lips. Now since they are giving PCs instead of money there is a huge oppurtunity to siphon a part of the funds to their pocket. Suppose the actual price of each PC is Rs 18,000, they would make a bill of Rs 30,000.

Shasanka_Gogoi said:
Its true that since last year the Govt. of Assam has been giving away branded PC's from brand such as Wipro, Acer, etc.. to the students of the State who have appeared for their Class 10 Board Exams (HSLC) and have successfully scored 60% or above marks. The PC's have a well to do configuration with 256MB of RAM, 40GB HDD, 52x Optical Drive, 56k internal Modem, 15inch CRT, Stereo speakers, FDD, Optical mouse & keyboard(internet ready) all powered by a 1.7 GHZ AMD Sampron, preloaded with Fedora Core 4. This year the Govt. beefed up the HDD to a standard 80GB and replaced the processor with that of a 2 GHZ Celeron. The Govt. is also giving free courses to the students for learning Computers. I was among the first to recieve one of those................................

I feel that its a remarkable feat undertaken by the Govt., which surely deserves a mention here. I don't know if any other state is undertaking sucha step(if they are than it is good).

wow... can graduates re-appear for 10th exam?

blackpearl said:
Good for the students, since the criteria for getting a PC is minimal, just 60%. Smart scheme by the govt, since its a big oppurtunity to rake in large amounts of money. If they give scholarship to students, which usually happens, then there is no way to pocket the money, because the total amount of money that would go to the students can be exactly calculated. So all the money sanctioned for scholarship had to be given to the students, and the govt officials are left licking their lips. Now since they are giving PCs instead of money there is a huge oppurtunity to siphon a part of the funds to their pocket. Suppose the actual price of each PC is Rs 18,000, they would make a bill of Rs 30,000.

Totally Agree, and who said that the PCs come for free. Its the Tax money used to buy the PC isn't it??