Elcot gets new MD

In a major reshuffle in the Tamil Nadu state Government administration, Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (Elcot) has got a new MD while C Umashankar, has been transferred to Tamil Nadu Industrial Investment Corporation Ltd (TIIC). “The services of Umashankar are placed at the disposal of TIIC for appointment as the MD,” informed LK Tripathi, Chief Secretary to the Government, through a state Government press release. T Udhayachandran, IAS, Director, e-Governance and Commissioner (incharge), Art and Culture will replace Umashankar as the new MD of Elcot, the release informed. Umashankar is one of the five IAS officers to be transferred from their portfolios.

It may be noted that Umashankar was instrumental in launching the student laptop scheme across the state, where high configuration laptops were provided at a subsidized rate for students from primary class to PhD. This had irked the channel community to a great extent and they in turn put huge pressure on Elcot to discontinue the scheme. However, Umashankar put all efforts to calm down the situation by proposing to take the scheme through the channels and held few rounds of talks with channel representatives. Even though the he was unable to take the scheme through the channel route, he expressed his support to the community in all future endeavors of Elcot.

He had also proposed to expand the current student laptop scheme further after the closure of current scheme of providing one lakh notebooks to the student community in order to bring down the digital divide in the state by procuring bulk order from the notebook manufacturers under the brand name of Elcot and taking through channels. However, after his transfer all the proposals are at risk of being put on hold. Internal sources at Elcot claimed that the current laptop scheme would continue without any hiccups, even though Umashankar has been discharged of duties from Elcot.

Umashankar also had great affinity towards Linux and was responsible for the statewide adoption of the Linux operating system (OS) in all government schools and offices. He also provided various hands-on training courses for government employees on the Linux OS.