World's largest software company Microsoft today announced it would provide a suite of software at three dollars (a little over Rs 120) to government funded computer education programmes in the country.
"The Microsoft Student Innovation Suite comprising Microsoft XP Starter Edition, Office and Live Mail will be given to the schools for three dollars per user where computer training programme has been funded by governments," Microsoft corporate vice president (market expansion group) Will Poole told PTI from Beijing.
He said this was part of the company's efforts to take the benefits of IT to four billion people, hitherto untouched by the information revolution.
This three dollar-software offer, however, would be limited to the Partners in Education Programme (PEP) pact that the company has entered into with 10 states in the country.
It would be available where the company's PEP is running and applicable to all kind of computers, including refurbished PCs.
Microsoft has signed agreements with 10 states, including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
Started in 2002, PEP has so far impacted over 110,000 school teachers and 5.5 million students in government schools across the country.
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