Kathmandu [Nepal], March 22 (ANI): The Indian Embassy in Nepal celebrated the 60th Indian Technical & Economic Cooperation (ITEC) Day in Kathmandu on Friday.

The event was attended by Members of Parliament, senior government officials, ITEC alumni and prominent Nepalese alumni of academic institutions from India attended ITEC Day celebrations.

Nepal's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Arzu Rana Deuba, graced the event as the Chief Guest. Foreign Minister Deuba fondly recalled her experience studying in India and expressed gratitude to the government of India for its numerous initiatives in the fields of development and education.

'For a lot of generations of Nepali, India has been a place where we go to study, where we go to do research, where we get trained, and we learn a lot of things from there. Also, our Indian brothers and sisters also come to Nepal, and they also learn a lot,' Deuba said, addressing the event.

Furthermore, stating that India has now risen to the centre of excellence for discussions on various topics, Foreign Minister Deuba shared her experience and learnings from the recently held Raisina Dialogue and the Indian Ocean Summit.

'I was really struck by the convening power of India because, I have seen India through ages. I have seen India from the 80's, it has undergone sea change, and the last conference that I was in (Raisina Dialogue) there were people from 140 countries, there were scholars and debates on all the gamete of issues. You want to know about a issue and there was the discussion. I saw similar set up at the Indian Ocean Conference, so for somebody from Nepal, I think that was a very good place for exposure place to exchange ideas with people, not only from India but all over the world,' Deuba said.

'I thank the Government of India and the Ministry of External Affairs for inviting me and including me along with many scholars and politicians from Nepal at these forums because it also offers and lends us a place for us to also to talk about our own country,' she added.

The Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme or popularly known as ITEC, is the leading capacity building platform of the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India.

Instituted in 1964, ITEC is one of the oldest institutionalized arrangements for international capacity building, having trained more than 200,000 officials from over 160 countries. Building on India's vast and rich network of governance and development-related expertise available in higher educational institutions and training facilities, ITEC offers nearly 10,000 fully-funded in-person training opportunities through nearly 400 courses at 100+ eminent institutes in India each year.

'The ITEC Day that we celebrate today is a testament to six decades of commitment of the Government of India to share its experience of human resource development with its neighbours and other developing countries. The program itself was launched in 1964, and over the last six decades, it has grown tremendously in both the scope of the program and in terms of courses that it offers as also the countries which are the partners of this program,' Indian Ambassador to Nepal, Naveen Srivastava said.

Furthermore, the Indian envoy also expressed commitment to expand the ITEC initiative further and introduce more customized programs in line with the evolving priorities of the Government of Nepal.

'In the last two years, we have tried to expand the reach of this program, and I am happy to say that we had more than one thousand Nepali professionals who have been to India on various programs. Including the programs organized by Indian institutions for the Armed Police Force or the Nepal Police, the Nepal Judicial Academy, the Election Commission, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Water Resources and a number of other institutions. As we look ahead, ITEC will remain an important component of the overall India-Nepal partnership. We plan to introduce customized courses required by our Nepali friends of various ministries, taking care of the evolving priorities of the Government of Nepal. There are a number of opportunities for expanding such cooperation,' the Ambassador announced.

Addressing the event, Attorney General Ramesh Badal and ITEC alumni Brig Gen Pawan Khatri, Joint Coordinator, National Security Council Secretariat and Dayaram Sharma, Superintendent, Armed Police Force, shared their experiences and insights about the ITEC during the event.

The celebration also included an enthralling Mayurbhanj Chau dance performance by an Indian Council for Cultural Relations supported cultural troupe 'Yagna' from India led by renowned artist Kuleshwar Kumar Thakur and mesmerizing instrumental folk fusion and jazz by the renowned Kanta Dab Dab band of Nepal.

In the year 2024-2025, 510 professionals from Nepal were trained in different courses in various prominent institutes in India. 21 Engineers of the Government of Nepal are enrolled in a two-year MTech course in streams such as Water Resource Management, Hydrology, and Irrigation Water Management at IIT Roorkee.

18 customized courses were organized for Doctors (50); Government Attorneys (30); members of the National Judicial Academy of Nepal (15), Nepal Police (143); Armed Police Force (80); Ministry of Home Affairs (24); Ministry of Water Supply (40) in 10 prominent institutes of India in 2024-2025.

Nepal, being a close and friendly neighbour, is an active partner in the ITEC initiative of the Government of India. In the past 15 years alone, more than 3,000 officials from Nepal have been trained under ITEC. These capacity-building programs form a part of India's effort to not only support the human resource development of Nepal and partner countries but also to learn from their experiences so as to contribute to the overall socio-economic benefit of the region. (ANI)