Himachal Pradesh Free Laptops scheme: Nearly 19,487 students to get free laptops

Himachal Pradesh government will be giving free laptops to 19,847 meritorious students of class X, XII and graduates of 2018-19 and 2019-20 academic sessions under “Srinivasa Ramanujan Student Digital Yojana” on June 8. The free laptops would be distributed at 55 centres across the state. The total cost of free laptops is estimated around Rs. 83 crores, said Principal Secretary Education Manish Garg. The distribution of laptops was expected to be done earlier, however, it was delayed over the budget. Earlier, a budget of Rs. 50 crore was passed for this scheme- Rs. 25 crore each for 2018-19 and 2019-20 academic sessions. It was further increased by additional Rs. 25 crores as the cost of laptops had gone up in the past two years.

Sources said that the companies have given a discount of Rs. 5,000 per laptop.

Additionally, the state government will also be giving smartphones to about 10,000 meritorious students of 2020-21 for which tendering process is on, shared a source in the education department.

Meanwhile, Himachal Pradesh is not the only state that is giving free laptops to meritorious students but the Odisha government too is giving free laptops scheme under the Biju Yuva Sashaktikaran Yojana. The eligible students who hadn’t applied earlier for this scheme can do the same by June 20. The Odisha higher education department has extended the deadline for submission of online application till June 20, 2022. The Higher Education department tweeted that meritorious Plus 2 students can now apply for the direct benefit transfer (DBT) for laptops under the scheme till June 20.

The online application for the Biju Yuva Sashaktikaran Yojana was opened on March 29, 2022. And was supposed to be closed on May 10. Only 15,000 eligible students, whose names were there in the list of meritorious students, can apply for the scheme to receive Direct Benefit Transfer of ₹30, 000.

The amount will be paid through Aadhaar Enabled Payment System.