New Delhi, Dec. 14: Want a branded Pentium 4 personal computer for less than Rs 5,000? It’s possible.

But there’s a catch. These machines “will not be available to one and all”, says Microsoft. These dirt-cheap computers, priced between Rs 3,000 and Rs 5,000, can only be bought by people or NGOs to serve the disabled and the poor.

Microsoft India has tied up with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) to produce these computers. This is part of the company’s first Microsoft Authorised Refurbisher (MAR) programme, which kicked off in the country earlier this month.

This is how the programme works. The chamber will ask its member companies to donate unused computers to the programme, which will then replace the (usually defunct) software with one provided by Microsoft at a nominal price.

This will be as low as $5 (Rs 224) for an operating system and another $5 for installing an office software.

The refurbishing will be done mostly by poor or disabled people, each of whom will be known as an MAR. They are expected to earn between Rs 500 and Rs 700 for repairing each computer.

After the MAR returns the repaired computer, Ficci will sell it to non-profit organisations, NGOs and educational establishments at Rs 3,000-5,000 for promotion of computer literacy.

“The initiative is part of a four-pronged strategy adopted by Microsoft. Not only will it make technology available to the disabled and socially backward people, the exercise will prove environment-friendly and be a source of income generation for the poor and disabled (MARs). Most important, it will curb the use of pirated software,” said Vikas Goswami, head-CSR, Microsoft India.

Just any disabled person cannot become a MAR, though. “The MAR certificate can be obtained by a needy or disabled person as long as he possesses the basic skills,” a Ficci official said.