NEW DELHI: In a first India-Mali foreign office consultation last week, India’s telecom engineering firm, Telecom Consultants of India Limited (TCIL) has executed the deal to deploy telemedicine and tele-education initiative in the African region.
The discussions were spearheaded by T S Tirumurti, Secretary– Economic Relations, Ministry of External Affairs and by Boubacar Gouro Diall, Secretary-General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Republic of Mali.
Following the political dialogue, TCIL’s Director– Technical Kamendra Kumar signed country’s agreement with the Republic of Mali to offer India’s tele-education programme- eVidyabharati, and telemedicine initiative- e-Arogyabharati.
“Under this e-VBAB project, TCIL will extend free tele-education courses to 15,000 African students and telemedicine courses to 1,000 doctors and paramedics in Africa,” the Delhi-based consulting and engineering company in a statement said.
Kumar also held bilateral talks with dignitaries including Sekou Kasse, Ambassador, Embassy of the Republic of Mali in India; Amadou Diallo, First Counsellor, Embassy of the Republic of Mali in India; and Haoua Toure, Second Counsellor, Embassy of the Republic of Mali in India to explore the further expansion of the existing partnership and future collaborations.
TCIL’s Kumar has been leading India’s efforts in Africa to offer digital learning and healthcare services.
India-Mali relations have traditionally been cordial and friendly and have witnessed increased momentum in recent years. The delegation reviewed the entire gamut of bilateral issues including trade and commerce, development partnership, capacity building training programmes, people to people linkages, defence cooperation and security related issues.
The state-owned firm said that it is poised to expand its outreach in Africa, and being the world’s second-largest and second most-populous continent with more natural resources in one single continent than in the entire world put together, Africa is a significant market for TCIL and the entire Indian subcontinent.
