KINGSTON: India is planning to start new Indian Institutes of Technology abroad and Jamaica is the first country that has expressed interest in hosting it, President Ram Nath Kovind has said.
Kovind, the first Indian President to visit the island nation, on Tuesday said: "India is poised to become a knowledge economy that creates, disseminates and utilises knowledge to promote growth and development."
He praised India's education sector, particularly its world-renowned institutes of excellence, with many of the alumni of the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) heading the largest businesses and technology companies in the world.
"Under our National Education Policy released in 2020, India is planning to start new Indian Institutes of Technology abroad.
I am happy that Jamaica is one of the first countries to express interest in hosting an Indian Institute of Technology here," he said in his address to the joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament of Jamaica.
He said India's National Education Policy has also opened up specialised technical courses in premier Indian colleges and universities for foreign students.
"Jamaican students should take advantage of this opportunity of studying at some of the best institutions respected globally, charging only a fraction of the cost compared to western institutions," he said.
Today, India and Indians are taking the lead in research and development on cutting-edge technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Meta-verse that form the basis of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, he said.
"India is also the hub of start-ups and innovative technologies and is among the top three countries having the largest number of Unicorns," the president added.