The Indian government is moving to connect African Union countries with a satellite and fiber-optic network to enable the sharing of India's expertise in education and health care.
"With this project, we hope to get quality education from India since a lecturer can stand in India and deliver a lecture to students at not only Makerere University, but to other universities in Africa," Sam Kutesa, Uganda's foreign affairs minister, said after the launch of the project in the country this week.
Kutesa noted that the project has the capacity to deliver high-quality video footage of surgery taking place at a hospital in India. He said that not only can doctors in India guide physicians at hospitals in Uganda or any of the participating countries, but that medical students can also use the facility as a learning tool.
This first phase of the project started in February 2009 and covered 11 countries. The project is being implemented in 47 African countries and has been completed in 34 countries.
Speaking online from New Delhi, India External Affairs Minister Shri Krishna said the project will further improve relations between India, Uganda and the other African countries that are participating.
"This project will not only boost the education and health sectors but will strengthen India and her partners," Krishna said.
Under the project, the government of India is helping set up a fiber-optic network to provide satellite connectivity, telemedicine and tele-education.
Telemedicine patient locations have already been set up in 11 Indian "Super Specialty" hospitals. These have been connected to 33 hospitals in African countries.
Regular telemedicine consultations have already started in some of the African countries, and Uganda's Mulago Hospital will also benefit from this initiative, with the ability to consult its peers elsewhere in Africa using video conferencing.
Thirty-four tele-education teaching centers have also already been set up in three leading regional universities in Africa.
They include Makerere University, Uganda; Kwame and Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana; and Yaounde University, Cameroon. Makerere University will act as the center for the Eastern African region.
The project is also equipped to support e-governance, e-commerce, infotainment, resource mapping and meteorological and other services in the African countries, and to provide connectivity among the African heads of state through a highly secure closed satellite network.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Edris Kisambira
Quelle/Source: Computerworld Uganda, 17.09.2010
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