NComputing Inc, a US-based provider of low-cost shared computing technology, has won the bid to provide 50,000 seats for computer learning in 5,000 secondary schools across Andhra Pradesh.
The contract, valued at Rs 400 crore, is part of the ICT school learning programme initiated by the central government, which is expected to benefit 10 million students across the country and 1.8 million students in Andhra.
Delhi-based IT education and training company NIIT Limited will be the largest contractor and will be responsible for managing 2,005 of these schools in eight districts.
The Rs 173-crore order bagged by NIIT includes installing desktop PCs and NComputing’s low-cost shared computer systems, training the faculty and managing the learning labs for five years on a build, operate and transfer (BOT) model. The remaining schools will be operated by three other partners including Educomm. The implementation of the project will be completed by this month end.
Announcing this here on Monday, Stephen A Dukker, chairman and chief executive officer of NComputing Inc, said India would become a bigger market than the US for NComputing by 2010 given the huge population here. “The wireless version of our technology is in an advanced stage of development. The product will be available in the second half of 2009,” he said.
The privately-held company had sold a million pieces of its technology in over 90 countries in the last 20 months, with 70 per cent installations being in the education sector. In the US, it has installed 300,000 seats in 4,000 schools in 50 states. Since 2007, it has created 100,000 seats for education, government and business establishments across India.
NComputing’s software creates virtual independent desktops inside a Windows or Linux PC, enabling up to 30 simultaneous users to run their own applications for Rs 4,000 per seat.
