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A project for putting a PC inside every Indian home in Singapore has collected far more donated PCs than it has takers for!

''It's easier to get the computers,'' said Patrick Daniel, editor of The Business Times, who heads the project's board of directors. ''It's more difficult to get the families,'' he lamented, in a bid to make Indian parents more aware of the need to be computer savvy in the city-state.

The IT Services Cooperative is seeking to provide PCs for 14,000 Indian homes over five years.

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So far, it has received 430 used computers from donors. Only 30 upgraded computers were sold to families for between S$ 300 (USD 210) and S$ 600 (USD 420).

Another 100 older model were given away free.

Viswa Sadasivan, Daniel's assistant, observes that some Indian parents do not think a PC is an important expenditure. ''What we're hoping to do is to push computers higher up in the priority list.''

Volunteers plan to talk to Indian parents and field inquiry calls. Daniel says efforts would be stepped up to hit the target over the first year.

The project hopes to put computers in 500 households during that time. Each family receiving one will have to attend a basic course on information technology.

UNI

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