Home-grown joint venture hardware manufacturer Coconics has clinched an order, through competitive bidding, to supply 50% of the mid-level laptops to the Kerala government for the next six months. The deal is expected to save the State exchequer up to ₹16,000 on a single machine.
Coconics, a joint initiative of the public sector KELTRON, Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC), UST Global and Acceleron Labs, secured the order in the face of stiff competition from multinational giants.
The agreement, which is part of the government’s cost-saving demand aggregation policy, marks a public-private partnership that will boost the electronic hardware ecosystem in the State.
The government had decided on a policy of demand aggregation to purchase its requirements through the Centralised Procurement and Rate Contract System (CPRCS), marking a departure from the practice of departments making separate purchases.
The State Department of Electronics and Information Technology had floated the e-tenders through Keltron. In the bidding, Coconics quoted the lowest price.
“The demand for electronic equipment and systems is growing tremendously across the country and Coconics is equipped to participate in any competitive bidding at the national level,” said M. Sivasankar, Secretary, Electronics and IT.
Coconics, which has the support of global giant Intel, has a manufacturing unit at Manvila in Thiruvananthapuram.
The purchase pact with Coconics will enable the government to offset the impact of frequent price hike in the open market against its growing demand for hardware systems. As per the agreement, a laptop using open source software is priced at ₹22,896 against the open market price of ₹38,902. Similarly, the price of the system using licensed software is priced at ₹33,762, while the open market price is as high as ₹49,149.
