18 Sep 2022

Minister of Defence and Security, Mr Kagiso Mmusi has applauded India for being, since ancient times, the centre of higher learning with the system of universities dating back to the fifth century.

Speaking at the Indian Technical Economic Cooperation (ITEC) day celebration hosted by the High Commission of India recently, Mr Mmusi said students from other parts of the worlds also studied in India universities.

“To date, with more than a thousand universities and 42 000 colleges, India is one of the leaders in the education sector,” he said.

Minister Mmusi said India had also, over time, specialised in Information Technology, science, pharmacy, medicine and commence, and had also become an education hub for students from developing countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America to pursue higher studies.

He added that India had also emerged as one of the world leaders in e-learning.

Furthermore, he said the ITEC  day celebrated various scholarship programmes offered by the government of India in a diverse field of learning, ranging from short term, capacity-building and technical courses for civilians and defence personnel to doctoral level in India universities.

Botswana, he said, was one of the major beneficiaries of the scholarships, adding, therefore, that celebrating the ITEC day was more important to the country than to the High Commission of India.

Mr Mmusi said in the last six years more than 800 Batswana studied various short and long term capacity building courses in various disciplines in India. For his part, High Commissioner of India to Botswana, Dr Rajesh Ranjan said the ITEC day was organised every year in Gaborone to celebrate cooperation of the two countries in the field of capacity- building and higher education.

Dr Ranjan said the scholarship programmes were meant for sharing the knowledge and expertise with the larger objective of betterment of humanity.

He said the objective was in line with the ancient Indian ethos, which found expression in the phrase ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ which means ‘the world is one family’.

He expressed happiness that despite the fact that the programmes were also affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, they managed to send 100 people under the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) scholarships programme for higher studies in India.

“I am sure with the current progressive abatement of pandemic, these scholarship programmes will soon regain their pre-pandemic status and be utilised optimally by Batswana,” he said. ENDS