On Wednesday i.e. on May 25, 2011, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has announced that India will set up over 80 new institutions in Africa. He added that the proposed institutes will cover diverse areas such as agriculture to English language teaching in its support for institutional ability building in Africa.
As per sources, at the conclusion of the two-day 2nd Africa-India Summit at the African Union headquarters in the Ethiopian capital, the prime minister told that India's total commitment to Africa would be to the tune of $5.7 billion in grants and lines of credit.
Mr Singh said that in discussion with African Union, India will set up over 80 new institutions at the Pan-African, regional and bilateral levels in sectors such as agriculture, rural development, food processing, soil, water testing laboratories, integrated textile cluster, weather forecasting, life and earth sciences, information technology, vocational training, English languages centres, entrepreneurial development institutes.
Besides, he also added that the consolidation of India's financial assistance consisting of grants and lines of credit into a consistent plan has begun to show results in projects of interest to Africa. He also mentioned that India's total commitment over the next three years is expected to be $5.7 billion to help Africa achieve its development goals.
Furthermore, he declared that India will offer 22,000 scholarships and training slot to African students under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme.
