Saturday October 29, 2016
Kabul (BNA) Indian technical economic cooperation program celebration (ITEC) day was held in the Indian embassy compound in Kabul the other day.
Indian Ambassador said ITEC was the flagship program of the government of Indian’s technical cooperation effort, characterized by professional capacity-building efforts amongst ITEC partnership countries over a number of sectors.
He said that Afghanistan was one of the biggest beneficiaries of the ITEC civilian program with 500 slots under ITEC and 25 slots under the Colombo plan to Afghanistan every year. The ambassador said added that till now, about 4,000 Afghan nationals have benefited from these courses, and I am delighted that some of you are present here today, otherwise another key component of government of India’s assistance to Afghanistan is our special scholarship scheme. During his visit to Afghanistan in August 2005, the then prime minister of India Dr. Man Mohan Singh announced the award of top scholarships every year for afghan students for undergraduate and postgraduate university education in India. The scheme was implemented from academic year 2006 -07.
The ambassador said that three years later, due to very encouraging response, the number of scholarships was increased to 675. Another three years later, the number of slots was further increased to 1000. The response to our scholarships has been nothing short of tremendous, and we receive applications several times the number that we can admit. Again, I’m delighted that many alumni of Indian colleges and universities are with us here today.) He express Indian council for cultural relations will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of ICCR scholarships to afghan youth on 17th November 2016 in New Delhi. We look forward to a high – level participation from Afghanistan in this event.) India will continue to offer ITEC, ICCR and capacity building and developmental programs to Afghanistan, and we hope that these will continue to be of value to you and assist in your national development efforts. These program are organized by premier institutions of India who offer more than 300 short -term, medium -term and long-term courses.
Shukria Kohistani
