Indian MPs Getting State-Sponsored Tablets

The Indian Government, in a bid to go paperless, is bestowing each member of the Parliament with a Rs. 50,000 sanction to buy themselves a tablet, with Rajya Sabha MP Sitaram Yechury already having gotten his hands on a shiny new iPad 2.

According to a report by ZDNet, K. Rahman Shah, the Deputy Secretary for the Rajya Sabha, said, “We hope to roll out the scheme in the next fortnight. MPs can order it through the Parliament secretariat or get the cost reimbursed.”

Modernity is all the rage in the offices of the Indian lawmakers, and paper, with all its considerable heft, is on its way out. With the Apple iPad 2 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab both available in the country for prices much lower than the new sanction, the Rajya Sabha will be encouraging its members to purchase one of the two devices in any configuration they like and then training them on their use.

According to T.K. Vishwanathan, the secretary general of the Lok Sabha, the larger house of the Indian Parliament intends to implement the same sanction for its own members once the less populated Rajya Sabha has carried out its plan.

The National Informatics Centre has developed applications for both Android and iOS to aid in the use of either tablet. These apps will provide access to various important functions of the parliament, such as list of business, papers laid on the table of the house, and latest parliamentary bulletins, among other information related to running the country. Not to mention a list of the their co-workers’ birthdays!