Micromax, Jio bag Rs 1,500 cr order from C'garh govt

NEW DELHI: A consortium of handset maker Micromax and telecom major Reliance Jio has bagged a Rs 1,500-crore order from the Chhattisgarh government to distribute 50

lakh smartphones to women and students in the state.

Under the project, 45 lakh smartphones are being given to women and the remaining will be distributed to college students in the state, Micromax co-founder Vikas Jain told PTI.

"About 10,000 camps are being organised under the project and deliveries have already started. Every beneficiary, chosen by the state government, is handed the device personally after activating it with Reliance Jio connection. The authentication of the beneficiary is done using Aadhaar," he said.

Jain said the project covered a large part of the population and the company reserved space in 15 warehouses across the state to ensure timely distribution of the handsets to people. Chhattisgarh had a population of over 2.5 crore as per the 2011 census.

The deal was signed ear

lier this year with distribution starting end of July. "For carrying out the project, we hired about 2,000-2,500 temporary staff... We expect to complete deliveries to all beneficiaries in the next few weeks," he added.

Jain explained that the project "doesn't appear to be politically motivated", given that it has taken months of planning and execution. The project was given through a tender process. He added that the initiative will help make Chhattisgarh a digitally empowered state. The devices being given to women have a configuration of 4-inch display, 1GB RAM/8GB internal memory, while the handsets given to students feature a 5-inch display and 2GB RAM/16GB internal memory.