Chennai, Feb 27 (IANS) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Palaniswami on Wednesday launched the free laptop scheme for students for the academic year 2018-19 by handing over laptops to seven students at the state secretariat.

In a statement issued here, the government said during this academic year, about 15.18 lakh students will be given free laptops involving an outlay of Rs 1,340.44 crore.

The AIADMK government under then Chief Minister J.Jayalalithaa launched the free laptop for students scheme in 2011.

Since then a total of 37,88,528 students have been given free laptops at an outlay of Rs 5,552.39 crore.

--IANS vj/vd