Overview of India's Development Cooperation

The Government of India’s approach to Development Partnership has been shaped by India’s struggle for independence and solidarity with other colonized and developing countries and the inspiring leadership of Mahatma Gandhi who said "I do want to think in terms of the whole world. My patriotism includes the good of mankind in general. Therefore, my service to India includes the service of humanity”. Despite its own resource constraints, India has been sharing its developmental experiences and technical expertise with other countries in the spirit of "VasudhaivaKutumbakam”.

Indian model of developmental cooperation is comprehensive and involves multiple instruments including grant-in-aid, line of credit and capacity building and technical assistance. Depending on the priorities of partner countries, India’s development cooperation ranges from commerce to culture, energy to engineering, health to housing, IT to infrastructure, sports to science, disaster relief and humanitarian assistance to restoration and preservation of cultural and heritage assets.

Training and Capacity Building Cooperation under Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC)

Capacity building assistance is an important strand of India's development partnership programme. The Government of India provides capacity building support to other friendly countries in various forms such as civilian and military training programmes in India, training on-site abroad, deputation of Indian experts, establishment of centres of excellence in IT and vocational training centres.

Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme, instituted in 1964, now covers around 160 partner countries from Asia, Africa, East Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean as well as Pacific and Small Island countries. The ITEC Programme comprises mostly of short term training courses organised annually across Indian public institutions in various streams for govt. officials and working professionals. The Programme has grown organically from about 4000 training slots in 2006-07 to around 14000 slots (including defence training) in 2019-20. During 2019-20, civilian training slots were offered under ITEC in over 383 courses across 98 institutionsin a wide and diverse range areas. These include disciplines such as Engineering and Technology; Government Functions; Environment and Climate Change; Agriculture; Banking, Finance, Accounts and Audit; English Language; Health and Yoga; Petroleum; ICT; Journalism; Management and Leadership; Power, renewable & Alternate Energy, including solar; Rural Development; Women Empowerment etc.

New modalities like e-ITEC, ITEC-Onsite and ITEC executive have been included in the bouquet of ITEC offerings from 2018 onwards.

ITEC is about cooperation and partnership for mutual benefit. It is response-oriented and it addresses the needs of developing countries. India possesses skills of manpower and technology more appropriate to the geographical and ecological conditions and the stage of technological development of several developing countries. These training facilities are available for nationals of the Philippines, Palau and Micronesia.

To apply for ITEC click HERE.