EAM Jaishankar inaugurates IT centre at Namibia University built with Indian assistance

Windhoek: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar inaugurated the Namibia University’s fully equipped IT center, known as The India Namibia Centre of Excellence in Information Technology (INCEIT) built with Indian assistance.

The center, equipped with cutting-edge IT infrastructure, is a product of the collaborative efforts between India and Namibia in development, cooperation, and capacity-building.
“It is an outcome of the development, cooperation and capacity-building partnership between India and Namibia. And it is being pursued in line with the shared desire to develop human resources, especially of the youth, and give them the right skills in the technology domain,” he said.

While addressing the inauguration event of the INCEIT, EAM Jaishankar said that it reflects the long-standing people-to-people friendship and linkages between India and Namibia.

This centre started offering courses going back to November 2019, when the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) provided the course materials, the reference books and much of the IT hardware and software, EAM said.

“The remaining installations were completed in very challenging circumstances during the Pandemic,” Jaishankar added.

Speaking on the trainers teaching at the INCEIT, EAM informed that six master trainers from Namibia were given training in CDAC in India.

The Centre is additionally equipped with a CDAC PARAM Supercomputer with High-Performance Computing (HPC) Applications. Now, since its deployment, the supercomputer has seen the installation of numerous application software to ensure its optimum usage.

Acknowledging the support and collaboration of the Vice Chancellor and his team, Minister Jaishankar expressed gratitude for their “unstinted support and collaboration to make this project a reality with the objective of developing industry-oriented programmes to address skill requirements in areas such as cybersecurity, big data analytics and e-governance applications and software development.”

The Centre has been able to offer courses and to train more than 275 professionals, government officials from various ministries students, teachers and researchers, Jaishankar informed.

Jaishankar also appreciated a student who won a reward in a cybersecurity competition.

“I’m happy to note that a student from this very centre has won a trophy with the first position at the 6th Namibia National Cybersecurity Competition,” Jaishankar said.

“The courses that the centre is offering are truly vital for Namibia in building a knowledge society, and this has to be done on the foundations of innovation and technology which will emerge from here,” he added.

Jaishankar said that India’s home-developed Unified Payment Interface (UPI) has revolutionised digital transactions in India, taking financial inclusion, to new levels that 40 per cent of the world’s real-time digital payments take place in India.

Speaking on the INCEIT again, Jaishankar said that the unique feature of this centre is that it is powered by the Param Supercomputer rightly named Arup.

The Centre is additionally equipped with a CDAC PARAM Supercomputer with High-Performance Computing (HPC) Applications.

Now, since its deployment, the supercomputer has seen the installation of numerous application software to ensure its optimum usage.

“This centre is the latest in our strong partnership with Africa, which particularly targets the gen next in Africa and India. It has been established in several locations across the continent vocational training centres, IT centres, science and technology parks, entrepreneurship development centres and geoinformatics applications for rural development,” Jaishankar said while concluding his address.

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between India and Namibia to create and operate the India Namibia Centre of Excellence in Information Technology (INCEIT) for training in specialised areas of Information Technology. The government of India initiated a proposal for the setting up of CEIT with the intent of having international outreach for imparting ICT education in Namibia.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) signed an Agreement on July 16th, 2018 for the setting up of an India Namibia Centre of Excellence in Information Technology (INCEIT) at the Namibia University of Science & Technology.