KATHMANDU: The Embassy of India in Kathmandu today marked the 56th anniversary of the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) Day-2020 through a webinar on “Sharing Knowledge and Experiences on COVID-19 Management”.

ITEC is India's flagship capacity building assistance initiative with near-global coverage to 160 developing countries, including Nepal. ITEC Programme is fully funded by the Government of India to share India’s developmental experience and expertise with 160 developing countries, including Nepal. Some institutions of Government of Nepal have benefitted from regular, e-ITEC and tailor-made ITEC courses designed based on customised needs.

The webinar brought together distinguished ITEC alumni from Nepal as well as expert voices from government and industry in India and Nepal to exchange views and share perspectives on addressing the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the plenary session, panellists included Indian Ambassador to Nepal Vinay Mohan Kwatra; Nepal's Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation secretary Dinesh Kumar Ghimire; Nepal Medical Council chairman Bhagwan Koirala and Nepal's Deputy Attorney General Padma Prasad Pandey.  They were joined from India by Indian government's Department of Biotechnology advisor Alka Sharma; and Bharat Biotech International Ltd, Hyderabad Joint MD and Co-founder Suchitra Ella.

Ambassador Kwatra noted with appreciation the on-going bilateral cooperation to support Nepal in building indigenous capacities, including under the ITEC initiative. Since last year, several ITEC capsules have been organised at India’s premier institutions for officials from various institutions of Nepal in areas like judicial services for Supreme Court of Nepal, Public Finance Management for Finance Ministry, training for revenue officials, anti-money laundering, countering the financing of Terrorism training, intensive training in water resources and development and e-ITEC program on Covid-19 Management.

The Indian Ambassador also singled out the COVID–related cooperation between both countries under which India has been extending assistance to Nepal since April 2020 through the gifting of essential medicines including Remdisivir, PCR test kits, and ICU ventilators. Other plenary speakers also offered their views and perspectives on containing the COVID-19 pandemic and possibility of availability of vaccine in near future.

About 100 e-ITEC alumni who had taken part earlier this year since April 2020 in the Government of India-sponsored e-ITEC courses at premier Indian institutions on COVID crisis and its management participated in the webinar and conducted in-depth exchange of views. Medical experts from renowned institutions of India including AIIMS-Jodhpur, AIIMS-Raipur and PGIMER-Chandigarh joined in to offer and exchange views.

On the occasion, Ambassador Kwatra invited Indian and Nepali Brands to participate in Nepal India Franchise and Investment Virtual 3D Expo to be held from October 16 to 18.