A total of 1,056 students received free laptops from Minister for Social Welfare P. Geetha Jeevan on Tuesday.
As 12,220 laptops are to be distributed to students, 9,010 laptops have been received and 7,411 distributed so far. Hence, the remaining 1,599 students will receive the gadget soon.
Ms. Geetha said the students of private engineering and arts and science college students would get free laptops in the last phase of this exercise.
Among thos who received the laptops were students of Geetha Jeevan Arts and Science College, Kurukkusaalai (71 laptops), Grace Polytechnic College, Mullakkaadu (126), Infant Jesus College of Engineering, Vallanaadu (13), Jayaraj Annapackiyam CSI College of Engineering, Nazareth (237), Muthukaruppan Memorial Arts and Science College, Sillaankulam (97), Rajalakshmi College of Arts and Science, Vagaikulam (35), Sri Sankara Bhagavathi Arts and Science College, Kommadikottai (80), T. Mariappan Nadar Muthukani Ammal College of Arts and Science, Kulaththur (23), Thevanesam Erudhayam Ammal Polytechnic College, Vembar (129), V.V. College of Engineering, Arasoor (179) and MS University College, Nagampatti (66).
“The beneficiary students should understand that they, living in highly competitive world, should strive hard to acquire as much knowledge pertaining to their subjects and other allied units to get lucrative jobs. Since the laptops being given by the State government would play crucial role in equipping them with employable skills, the students should make use of this AI-ready gadget, Ms. Geetha said.
District Collector K. Elambahavath, MLA G.V. Markandeyan and senior government officials were present.
Speaking to reporters after the function, Ms. Geetha said the State government, despite the financial constraints being created by the Union Government which was refusing to release funds to Tamil Nadu, was procuring free laptops keeping in view the future of younger generation.
In Tirunelveli district, Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker M. Appavu gave away free laptops to 25 students of Mano College in Panagudi.
A total of 153 third year students of Data Science, Artificial Intelligence and Cyber Security of Manonmaniam Sundaranar University received the free laptops from Registrar J. Socratees.
Published – February 03, 2026 08:53 pm IST
