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Mr Ravi Venkatesan (right), Chairman, Microsoft Corporation India, and Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal, launching Gyandeep and Gyanbridhi, in collaboration with Intel Technologies in Kolkata on Thursday. — A. Roy Chowdhury

Kolkata , Oct. 27

MICROSOFT Corporation India Pvt Ltd on Thursday announced a partnership initiative with the West Bengal Government and Intel Technologies for a State-wide rollout of Gyandeep, the people's PC programme, and Gyanbridhi, the students' PC programme.

The two programmes are aimed at accelerating IT penetration in the State. The programmes were launched by the West Bengal Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, in the presence of the West Bengal's Minister for Information Technology, Mr Manabendra Mukherjee, and the Chairman of Microsoft India, Mr Ravi Venkatesan.

Under the two programmes, PCs would be made available to students and government employees at easy finance options. Speaking to newspersons after the initiative was launched at Writers' Buildings, here, Mr Venkatesan said it was the "beginning of a long journey" of Microsoft's association with West Bengal.

To a question on whether trade unions should be allowed in the IT sector, he said: "Managements must be responsible for looking after employees' interests. As long as this happens and there is a productive dialogue between managements and employees, no intervention by any third party is necessary."

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