A CO-OPERATIVE project to put a computer in every Indian home in Singapore has got more PCs than takers. The IT Services Cooperative, spearheaded by the Malayalee community here, aims to provide PCs for 14,000 needy Indian homes over five years. It has so far received 430 used computers from the donors. It upgraded 30 Pentium computers and these were sold to families for between $300 and $600.

Another 100 PCs, the older 486 models, were given away free to needy Indian families at the SINDA 's head quarters in Beatty Road yesterday.

Mr Patrick Daniel, the editor of Business Times heads the co-op's board of directors.

He said: "it 's easier to get the computers. It's more difficult to get the families."

His deputy, Mr Viswa Sadasivan, who is the managing director if a media company , said that some parents may not think that a PC is an important expenditure.

"It's a question of whether a PC is a high - priority expenditure in these households. What we 're hoping to do is to push computers higher in their priority list."

To this end it plans to go all out to make the Indian parents more aware about to be need to be IT savvy .

Already, its volunteers are fanning out to speak to parents of students in SINDA tuition classes.

They will also field calls from interested members of the public.

Said Mr Daniel: "We will step up our efforts and we think we can hit our target for the first year."

In its first year, the co-op aims to put computers in 500 households, recruit 10,000 members and raise $1 million. It now has 1,480 members.

Ordinary members pay at least $5(at $1 per share),while institutional and founder members pay a minimum of $10,000.

Yesterday, the co-op also announced that DBS Bank chairman S. Dhanabalan will head its board of trustees and that MP S.Iswaran(West Coast GRC) will be his deputy.

SINDA helps to identify the needy families through its family service centres and other programmes . The self help group looks at such factors as household income , and the number and age of the children in the family.

Every family that gets a computer must also attend a basic IT course organized by SINDA.

One delighted child who received a free 486 computer yesterday was six years old Yasmeen HajaMydeen.

Said her father, Mr Rajmohamed Haja Mydeen , a salesman : "I cannot afford to buy the PC myself, so I 'm glad that the cooperative can help my daughter."

"We've got the project off the ground. The challenge now is to keep the project flying , "said Mr Daniel. For more information, call 295-6252 or e-mail it-cop@singnet.com.sg