New Delhi
29 August 2005
India has increased the defence training slots
offered in 2005-2006 under the Indian Technical and Economic
Cooperation (ITEC) besides empanelling four more institutions to conduct
more than 220 courses as part of the civilian training programme. There
are 156 ITEC partner countries, which are mostly developing countries
although countries like Russia and Turkey are also included.
However, the actual utilisation of defence training slots has witnessed a
steady decline over the past five years. In 2000-2001 268 military
personnel were trained; that figure dropped to 215 in 2004-2005.
Moreover, out of the 215 slots, African countries acounted for only 76
slots. Military training covers training in all the three wings of defence
servics for officers/cadets from other countries in some of the prestigious
institutions like National Defence College, New Delhi and National
Defence Services Staff College, Wellington.
According to the Technical Cooperation Division of the Ministry of External
Affairs, the number of defence training slots has been increased by 104
over last year's figure while the civilian training slots has been pegged at
2,980, down by 715 from the previous year. The budget for the economic
and technical cooperation programme has accordingly been revised
upwards to Rs 56 crore.
The ITEC programme of the Ministry of External Affairs is meant to
support the political objectives of Indian diplomacy in developing
countries, share Indian technical and scientific expertise with these
countries and secure trade and commercial benefits for India.
Since 1964, India has provided $ 2.5 billion worth of technical assistance
to developing countries including many in the neighbourhood. Although
ITEC is essentially bilateral, its resources have also been used for
financing trilateral and regional programmes under the Economic
Commission for Africa, UNIDO, Group of 77, Afro Asian Rural
Reconstruction Organisation and G-15.
In the recent past, special programmes under ITEC have also been
designed for regional groupings such as African Union, ASEAN, BIMSTEC
and CARICOM.
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