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, panelists included Mr. Vinay Mohan Kwatra, Ambassador of India, Mr. Dinesh Kumar Ghimire, Secretary, Ministry of Energy, Water Resources & Irrigation of the Government of Nepal, Dr. Bhagwan Koirala, Chairman-Nepal Medical Council and Mr.Padmaprasad Pandey, Deputy Attorney General, Govt of Nepal. They were joined from India by Dr. Alka Sharma, Advisor, Department of Biotechnology in the Government of India, and Ms. Suchitra Ella-Joint MD & Co-founder, Bharat Biotech International Ltd. in Hyderabad.
Ambassador Vinay 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 organized 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 financing of Terrorism training, intensive training in water resources and development and the e-ITEC program on Covid-19 Management.
Ambassador Kwatra also singled out the Covid–related cooperation between both countries under which India has been extending assistance to Nepal since April 2020 through 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 an 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.
ITEC Programme is fully funded by the Government of India to share India’s developmental experience and expertise with 160 developing countries, including Nepal. A number of institutions of Government of Nepal have benefitted from regular, e-ITEC and tailor-made ITEC courses designed on the basis of customized needs.