India is helping war-torn Afghanistan to help rebuild its telecommunication services and also contributing to the development of Nepal.
Telecommunication Consultants India Limited (TCIL), a public enterprise based in New Delhi has been working in Afghanistan since 2001. The company has set up computer education in schools and launched tele-medicine services in Afghanistan.
TCIL also provides training to Afghan government officials for smooth functioning in the offices.
In 2009, the company started Telemedicine centre to get expert opinion of the specialists and this opinion from specialists is available easily from two major hospitals from India that Post Graduate Institute Lucknow and Post Graduate Institute Chandigarh.
The doctors get periodically trained with continued medical education and lecture from both these institutes and one lecture per week that happens from each of these institutions from Chandigarh and Lucknow. So this has helped in the capacity building of the doctors and at the same time it has also helped the patients there. TCIL have contributed for education, health and also connectivity among the people.
"In 2001 the war was over and India was one of the major players there, TCIL started its journey there in Afghanistan and we started with the computer education and established centers in different places and about 300 top government officers they were trained in computer and computer related education. That was the first beginning", said, Vimal Wakhlu (Chairman and Managing Director, TCIL)
TCIL has also launched Microwave network worth $3.5-4 million which helps to increase the bandwidth services in the country.
The microwave network is connecting different parts of Afghanistan to capital Kabul. CDMA for mobile was also rolled out by TCIL in about 11 provinces of Afghanistan.
Despite the threats posed by the Taliban, the company has been working in Afghanistan to improve telecommunication services.
"At the time of roll out of main network also CDMA etc. Our people were even captured by some of the people over there. Of course it was possible to release them also and they were caught in cross firing also. There is an incident related by one of our engineers right now he is in Ethiopia he narrates how when he was working for TCIL in Afghanistan he was given gun by the American Army that you have to defend yourself and nobody can defend you. They taught him how to use the gun", said, Vimal Wakhlu (Chairman and Managing Director, TCIL)
India has contributed about 750 million USD since 2002 to Afghanistan and these funds are invested for the improvement in health, education and infrastructure development.
"India traditionally over the years first as a part of Non- Alignment movement has been a leader of developing nations and it has always been an Endeavour to benefit all the developing nations with whatever we have achieved, whatever we have learnt and that applies even to Afghanistan. They are our brothers, neighbors and traditionally over thousand of year's relation with Afghanistan is unique", said, Vimal Wakhlu (Chairman and Managing Director, TCIL)
TCIL's contribution to Afghanistan in communication, IT, and even health services is remarkable.
India also contributes for the development of Telecommunication services in Nepal and providing an array of services to Nepal and assisting in the capacity building.
Telecommunication Consultants India Limited has been working in Nepal since 2003.
The company has commissioned mobile network services, optical fibre network and satellite communication network to the neighbouring country. The company is working closely with Nepal Telecom to help in setting satellite communication network in remote hilly areas.
TCIL has done PAN African E- network projects which is about 542 crore project which is equivalent $116 million USD project. It involved connecting 53 nations of Africa to India in Tele medicine and Tele education.
At present 43 countries of Africa are connected to 12 leading hospitals in India including, All India Medical Sciences and Apollo etc. and also five leading universities of India. They include IGNOU, Amity, Bits Pillani, University of Madras and University of Delhi.
There are about 16,000 students who are undergoing education from different parts of Africa from these universities in India and in medical education 72 sessions happen in a month from these Indian hospitals. TCIL has implemented similar projects in SAARC nations, in Afghanistan, Nepal and Bhutan for education and medicine purposes and Tele medicines.
"For other Telecom players we are rolling out in terms of optical Fibre network and providing them the infrastructure for connectivity with the main stations that also we are doing in Nepal. Apart from that for Ministry of External Affairs we have rolled out Tele medicine network about 5 years back in Nepal. This benefits people in terms you can say having advised from the best doctors in India. They are connected to PGI Lucknow and PGI Chandigarh, these two hospitals", said, Vimal Waklu (Chairman and Managing Director, TCIL)
The setting up of fibre network in Nepal by TCIL has improved the bandwidth in the country.
"Nepal did not have the core optical fibre network earlier. This has helped in all the regions connected into the main stream so that has been a main contribution from the Indian side. All the hinter lands which earlier on microwaves there would be limited band width and now there is sufficient band width available to connect to all those people and population for all those areas to the main network. So it has really benefited and you are aware that when you have broad band which can come on the optical fibre media then all other services like governance, like e-governance for example education, health, all these can flow on this network"," said, Vimal Wakhlu (Chairman and Managing Director, TCIL)
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visit to Nepal has improved the bilateral ties between the two neighbours.
More public and private sector Indian companies will invest in Nepal in near future.
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