NComputing, a comer in low-cost computing run by the guy who started eMachines, has picked up a deal to supply 1.8 million kids in 5,000 schools in Andhra Pradesh with computer access.

Andhra Pradesh is the largest and most populous state in South India and the deal, another thumb in the eye for One Laptop Per Child, represents 50,000 seats.

In the next few months local authorities will be tapping education IT firms such as Educomp, Everonn, NIIT and Social Computers to build computer labs that teach computer skills and office productivity as well as reading and math.

Actually the Andhra Pradesh government will outsource the entire project to these companies for five years. This outsourcing model is referred to as Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) and requires the companies to install, staff and manage the labs.

This arrangement is supposed to ensure that the labs are installed quickly and that performance benchmarks are met. The five-year period should also give school staff the time to develop their own competency in managing the labs and computer-aided teaching.

The win marks the largest single deployment of NComputing’s $70 solution in India. Its technology creates multiple virtual desktops on a single PC so that multiple users can tap its unused capacity and share it as if each person had their own computer.

Andhra Pradesh chose the NComputing X300 solution, which enables up to seven users to share one PC simultaneously.

The entire system will run on the Microsoft Windows Server operating system and use Microsoft’s Office Suite.

According to NComputing, the government of Andhra Pradesh will save $20 million in upfront and ongoing costs, and use 90% less electricity compared to a traditional all-PC solution.

Last month NComputing delivered its millionth machine.