Chennai, January 4 (IANS). Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin will on Monday launch the first phase of his government’s flagship digital empowerment initiative, “Ulagam Ungal Kaiyil” (The World in Your Hands), which aims to strengthen technology access among college students across the state.
The program will be inaugurated at 3 pm at Chennai Trade Centre, in which Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin will also be present.
Under the first phase of the scheme, the state government will distribute 10 lakh laptops to students pursuing higher education in government institutions.
The beneficiaries include students enrolled in government engineering colleges, arts and science colleges, medical colleges, agricultural universities, law colleges, polytechnics and industrial training institutes (ITIs).
This initiative is part of a broader two-phase plan to provide a total of 20 lakh laptops to college students, which was already announced by the Chief Minister.
According to the official release, the scheme aims to ensure that economically and socially disadvantaged students are not left behind in the increasingly technology-based education and employment scenario.
An official statement said the program is based on the student-centric welfare initiatives of the Dravidian model government, such as Tamil Pudhalvan, Pudhumai Pen, First Undergraduate Scholarship, Post-Matric Scholarship and Social Justice Hostels.
The laptops distributed under the scheme have been sourced from leading global manufacturers including Dell, Acer and HP. Each device will have an Intel i3 or AMD Ryzen 3 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of SSD storage. The laptop will come pre-installed with Windows 11, Boss Linux, and MS Office 365, as well as a free six-month subscription to the AI-powered Perplexity Pro platform.
Beneficiaries will also receive a high quality laptop bag.
The state government said the initiative is not limited to just supporting academic education but also aims to enhance the employability of students by enhancing their digital literacy, software skills and introducing them to emerging technologies such as AI tools, coding platforms and freelancing ecosystem.
–IANS
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