India taps IT power to woo African youth

The Economic Times, 28 MAY, 2011

RELATED ARTICLES

• Manmohan Singh says India more connected to Africa than any other partner
• Investing in Africa an act of faith: Manmohan Singh
• Suzlon Energy signs first South African wind turbine deal
• Jain Irrigation enters Africa to provide irrigation solutions

DAR ES SALAAM: India is reaching out to African youth here by offering to make Tanzania a "communication and IT hub of East Africa" and has unfurled new possibilities of cooperation in key high-tech areas like space cooperation.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
with Tanzania President  Jakaya Mrisho
 Kikwete visiting project (Co EICT) at
 Dar-es-Salaam Institute of Technology
at Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania on
Friday. (PTI)

Drummers and dancers swayed jauntily, waving flags of India and Tanzania at the entrance to the Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology where hundreds of budding engineers and young IT trainees eagerly waited for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to speak to them Friday evening.

It was a hot and humid evening in this coastal metropolis, but the torrid weather could not deter students who sat patiently and clapped spontaneously as Manmohan Singh described them as "the future of Tanzania" and offered to "create a pool of world class professionals" in East Africa's largest country.

"You represent the future of Tanzania, and from what I have seen I can say with confidence that the future of Tanzania is bright," he said to loud applause before formally launching the Indo-Tanzanian Centre for Excellence in IT which has been set up by Indian software engineers at a cost of a little over $2 million in August last year.

"India is ready to provide all the help we can within our resources to enable Tanzania to create a pool of world class IT professionals," he said.

"If we can produce a steady stream of highly trained scientists, technologists and engineers, our cooperation would be worthwhile and we would be putting our money to good use," he said.

This is the first time an Indian Prime Minister was addressing the youth in an African university, signalling New Delhi's new vision to forge a contemporary and modern partnership with the African continent where over 50 per cent of nearly 1 billion people are in the age group of 18-35.

"The scientific and technological empowerment of the youth has a direct correlation to a nation's social and economic progress," he said.

The institute also houses the Param High Speed Super Computer gifted by India to Tanzania in 2009 that is being used for weather-forecasting and high-speed computation.

This has made Tanzania only one of four African countries that also include Ghana, Egypt and South Africa which has facilities for high-tech computing facilities. India has also set up a similar IT centre for excellence in Ghana.

Raising the bar for India's diplomatic thrust in Africa, Manmohan Singh announced India's readiness to cooperate with Tanzania in the area of space technology and applications and placed it in the larger context of South-South bonding.