Microsoft has tied up with HCL and Intel to develop personal computers with this latest operating system and has introduced these PCs for Uttaranchal government employees to begin with, Microsoft India director (business and marketing operations), Ranjivjit Singh told reporters.

Uttaranchal is the first state where these PCs would be available under the state government's 'people's PC program', in which government employees would be able to buy these PCs at an EMI of as low as Rs 399, he said.

The new operating system provides all major activities such as word processing, e-mail, internet connectivity and media players with a Hindi user interface, he said.

With this offering, India becomes the sixth country after Thailand, Russia, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brazil where Microsoft has introduced the Windows XP starter edition.

The new software would not be available off the shelf, Singh said. He also did not hazard a guess on the sales target for this new offering but said that the two lakh government employees in Uttaranchal would be their target audience as of now. Microsoft was also talking to other state governments to introduce the product in more Hindi-speaking states, he added.

Microsoft was also working with HCL and state-run BSNL to introduce a joint offering for broadband users, Singh said, but added that it would not be for beginners and might require a different version of Windows.