In a significant development that sets the ball rolling for IIT Madras’ global campus to start operations this year, India signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Tanzania on Thursday to establish the first IIT branch abroad, in Tanzania.
The IIT Tanzania campus is expected to open in October 2023, welcoming 50 undergraduate and 20 master’s students in its first batch. The agreement on Thursday was signed between India’s Ministry of Education, IIT Madras and Tanzania’s Ministry of Education and Vocational Training Zanzibar. In a tweet on Thursday, External Affairs Minister of India Dr. S. Jaishankar thanked President of Zanzibar Dr. Hussein Ali Mwinyi for being present during the MOU signing that, he said, reflects “India’s commitment to the Global South.”
Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan tweeted, “The initiative is an embodiment of PM @narendramodi’s commitment to strengthen South-South cooperation as well as forge stronger people-to-people ties with Africa.”