THE Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme (ITEC) is an example of South-South cooperation. This programme was launched in 1964 as a bilateral assistance programme. The main feature of the ITEC Programme is not only its geographical reach but also the innovative form of technical cooperation.
The ITEC Programme now covers more than 170 countries in Latin America, Asia, and East Europe and covers projects like hospitals, schools, restoration of ancient monuments, non-conventional sources of energy, agriculture, dairy development, pharmaceuticals, etc. In brief, there is hardly any area that has not been covered by ITEC Programme.
ITEC has four components, namely training, special projects, deputation of experts and study visits. While training remains the major component of ITEC Programme, of late more attention has also been given to deputation of experts.
During the state visit of President Bharrat Jagdeo to India in August this year, the number of slots for training was increased from 25 to 35. Currently there are six ITEC experts in the fields of medicine, dairy development, agriculture, television and radio transmission and town planning in Guyana. The number of ITEC experts to Guyana is expected to go up in the near future. These experts are contributing their bit to the development of areas where they are working.
On November 6, 2003, India and Guyana signed an agreement for supply of solar photovoltaic water pumps. Similarly, in August this year, an agro-processing demonstration vehicle was donated by India to Guyana.
ITEC is all about cooperation and partnership for mutual benefit. It is response oriented and addresses the needs of the developing countries as expressed by them.
1. C.D. Banerji, Chief Engineer in Doordarshan, was in charge of planning and expansion of television transmitters in India, frequency management, spectrum planning and monitoring of broadcast frequencies, conference and related activities in the country and abroad. He is presently working in N.F.M.U. helping them to set up an improved system to monitor all radio frequencies, draw up a frequency plan for the broadcast sector, namely television and radio, and set up an institutional framework to resolve interference problems. He intends to help them to set up a frequency management and monitoring unit of world standard, and train Guyanese engineers in the respective field.
2. Dr. V.C. Mathur is a Principal Scientist (Agricultural Economics) at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. His research interest is in the areas of agricultural marketing, international trade and agribusiness management and has over 23 years of policy-oriented research experience. Currently he is working as ITEC expert in the area of crop planning and forecasting at the National Agriculture and Research Institute (NARI) and is looking at crop production cycles, regional production patterns and the domestic and export market potential of fruits and vegetables in Guyana.
3. Radiologist, Dr. Archana Agarwal, was working as Senior Specialist (Radiology) in Safdarjang Hospital in New Delhi before coming to Guyana in 2001. Since December 2001, Dr. Agarwal has been working as Head of the Radiology Department and Principal Radiologist at Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). Since then she has tried to uplift and streamline the functioning of the Radiology Department of GPHC. The hospital has benefited from her services to a substantial extent.
4. Dr. R.P.S. Kharb, ITEC expert, prior to this assignment worked as Seed Production Officer in Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, India. The main activities were breeder seed production, teaching, and research on different aspects of seed technology. In Guyana, Dr. Kharb is an ITEC seed expert attached to NARI to deal with seed production, seed quality testing and other related aspects of seed technology of non-traditional crops, particularly vegetable crops.
5. Mukul Gupta, ITEC expert in town planning, is deputed here to Town and Country Planning Department of Central Housing and Planning Authority as Town Planner. He is an expert in development plan preparation and software applications in planning and design. He was working with Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) New Delhi, a premier techno-financial public sector enterprise of the Government of India, working in the field of cost effective housing and sustainable urban development.
6. Dr. Appupillai Murugan is an ITEC expert in the field of Dairy. Before coming to Guyana this year, he was Managing Director of Thanjavur District Milk Union, India. Presently he is working as Dairy Consultant with the National Dairy Development Programme (NDDP) of the Ministry of Fisheries, Crops and Livestock of Guyana. Guyana's dairy industry has high potential. As India is the largest milk producer in the world, (83 million metric tons per annum) through cooperatives, his expertise is well utilized to organize and train farmers to make dairying profitable. Dr. Murugan also uses his expertise as a veterinary specialist to control infertility in cattle through various projects.