INDIA - AFRICA CONNECT
PAN AFRICAN E-NETWORK PROJECT - IMPACTING LIVES IN AFRICA
The Pan African e-Network Project was conceived by former President Hon'ble Dr. A.P.J. Kalam at a cost of over Rs. 500 crores (US $ 125 million). Ministry of External Affairs is the nodal Ministry for the project while Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL) is implementing the project on a turnkey basis. First phase of the project for 11 countries was inaugurated by the then External Affairs Minister and current President Hon'ble Pranab Mukherjee on 26th February 2009. Both Learning Centre (LC) and Patient End Location were ready. Second phase of project involving 12 countries was inaugurated by the then EAM, Hon'ble Mr. S .M. Krishna on 16th August 2010. Under the project, India has set up a fibre optic network to provide satellite connectivity, tele-medicine and tele-education to countries in Africa. The network is to assist Africa in capacity building by way of imparting quality education in various disciplines.
48 African Union Member states have Memorandum of Understanding for the Project. 169 sites/centers have been commissioned and integrated with the network. The project is equipped to support e-governance, e-commerce, infotainment, resource mapping and meteorological and other services in the African countries besides providing VVIP connectivity among the Heads of State of the African countries through a highly secured closed satellite network.
Twelve Super Speciality hospitals and five top ranking Universities from India are presently providing Tele-medicine and Tele-education services to African member countries on this network. From the African side five designated Regional University Centres (RUCs) namely (1) Cameroun (2) Egypt (3) Ghana (4) Mauritius (5) Malawi and five Regional Super Speciality Hospitals (RSSHs) namely (1) Nigeria (2) Republic of Congo (3) Mauritius (4) Egypt (5) Senegal are showcasing Indian capabilities in Information Technology sector in Africa.
So far over 4500 Continued Medical Education sessions in English and French and over 500 tele-medicine consultations have been conducted by various Super Speciality Hospitals from India. Fann Hospital, Senegal had a total of 167 Tele-medicine consultations in neuro and cardio patients and have demonstrated maximum active participation and utilisation of services. This has saved lives of patients at the Regional Super Speciality Hospital.
TELE-EDUCATION SERVICES: Till January 2014 over 11500 students have been enrolled in various educational course disciplines from 53 countries. The disciplines include Post Graduate, Graduate, Diploma and Certificate Programmes with Indian Universities, Amity, IGNOU, Delhi University, University of Madras, BITS Pilani. The streams of education include physical sciences, engineering and technology, computer science and information technology, management, business and finance, medical disciplines etc. Universities like University of Delhi, University of Madras, Amity University, Indira Gandhi National Open University have distance learning centres utilizing the network. In countries where lack of infrastructure and availability of quality education is a detriment, e-education has brought noticeable change. Senegal has a learning centre at Gaston Berger University at St. Louis.
Senegal being a very important strategic location for this project in terms of presence of HUB station at Sebikotane and Regional Super Speciality Hospital (RSSH) at Fann Hospital is expected to play a very crucial and active role for Governance and successful functioning of this network in future.
The countries have taken advantage of full range of services offered by the Network.
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