(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Indian educational institutions are ready and willing to open more campuses in the UAE, said Kapil Sibal, India's Minister of Human Resource Development, Communications and Information Technology, at a luncheon hosted by India Club.
Sibal is in Dubai for the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) Telecom World 2012 Conference.
"We have given permission for Amity University to set up a campus in Dubai. IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology), IIMs (Indian Institutes of Management) and NITs (National Institutes of Technology) can also set up campuses abroad," he said.
He noted that the Indian government is taking steps to attract more foreign students to India.
"We are providing Indian institutions with world-class residential facilities. We have 10 new NITs. Recently, I inaugurated three new NITs in Mizoram, Meghalaya and Nagaland," he added.
Regarding the education sector, he confirmed that there is a huge shortage of faculty. To overcome this, the government has implemented free technology that can reach 10,000 people at a time. "(As much as) Rs660 million has been allotted in the next budget for teacher training.
The government wants to implement the semester system for credit transfers. A student can take a lecture from another university and get credits for it."
Elaborating about online education, he said, "We have drafted 1,000 online courses, most of them by IIT professors. The National Knowledge Network (NKN) has been set up by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and the content is provided by the Ministry of Education. Knowledge is transferred by the National Mission on Education through ICT (NME-ICT)."
Sibal believes that technology is important for a modern and resurgent India and that it can transform the life of the common man for the better. He noted that the future of technology lies in embedded software and India will be a world leader.
Sibal said that despite the financial crisis, India is moving forward with a GDP of 8.2 per cent.
Speaking about retail reforms, he said: "This is just a fear of the unknown. Retail reforms will impact the farmer directly as he will get a better price for his produce. It brings choice to the consumer, the system gets competitive, jobs are generated, plus there is foreign investment in India."
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