Jawaharlal Nehru India – Uzbekistan Centre for IT (JNIUCIT)
Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Information Technology (IT) is a powerful tool for accelerating economic development. India has focused on the development of IT during the last two decades and as a result, it has been recognized as an IT power in the world economy. India has made major strides in the field of Information Technology during this period. The Indian experience of using IT as a catalyst of economic development and its use for the welfare of the masses has paid rich dividends. IT is one of the fastest growing sectors of the Indian economy. The software exports from India have continued to grow. IT is perceived by the Government as a major facilitator of all round socio-economic development of the nation.

Established in March 1988, as a Scientific Society of the Department of Information Technology (formerly, Dept. of Electronics), Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (formerly, Ministry of Information Technology), Government of India, The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), is primarily an R & D institution involved in the design, development and deployment of advanced Information Technology (IT) based solutions.

In a little over a decade since inception, C-DAC has developed and supplied a range of high performance parallel computers, known as the PARAM series of supercomputers. C-DAC's development activities in this area have been mission oriented and driven by its mission objectives, both in technology and application developments.

Over the years, C-DAC has diversified its activities to address requirements in various areas, consequently, C-DAC’s expertise also extends to other advanced areas of Information Technology, enabling IT based solutions in areas like Financial and Capital market simulation and modeling, Network and Internet Software, Healthcare, Real Time Systems, eGovernance, Data Warehousing, Digital library, Artificial Intelligence and Natural language processing.

India is always willing to share its experience and expertise with other countries of the world, specially the countries of the developing world. In this backdrop, it was natural that IT figured as an important area of cooperation between Indian and other developing countries like Uzbekistan.

As part of the implementation of the India – Uzbekistan cooperation in the field of Information Technology India Government took an initiative for cooperation in this field. The two countries decided to give utmost priority to the development of ICT for further strengthening the friendly relations. As a part of this initiative, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India identified Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Advanced Computing Training School (ACTS), Pune as an implementing agency for the following:
1. Conduct of feasibility study for establishing the Centre for IT at Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
2. Establishment of Centre for IT at Tashkent, Uzbekistan by supplying, installing and commissioning the computing infrastructure which consists of Computer hardware, software, peripherals, office equipments. Equip the centre library with rich collection of course material and reference books.
3. Conduct a specialized training programme in ICT in India for the personnel identified by the Government of Uzbekistan
4. Depute expert faculty to Uzbekistan for Train – The – Trainer programme, specialized programmes in IT to be imparted at the centre in Uzbekistan.
5. Provide joint certification with Tashkent University of Information Technologies during the execution of project for the courses conducted at the centre.
6. Provide training to the faculty and personnel working for the centre at Uzbekistan for managing the technical infrastructure installed under the project. C-DAC, ACTS has already completed the work of establishment of Jawaharlal Nehru India – Uzbekistan Centre for IT (JNIUCIT) at Tashkent in Uzbekistan. The centre was inaugurated by Dr. Manmohan Singh, honorable Prime Minister of Republic of India on April 26, 2006. A fully functional centre is working under the Tashkent University of Information Technologies (TUIT), Government of Uzbekistan. The centre has got the state-of-the-art computing facility, Hi-tech computer labs, Video Conference Facility, Well equipped library and trained faculty. JNIUCIT is planned to be a major facility for development of human resources in IT in Uzbekistan.

The implementation of this project will help Uzbekistan in taking advantage of the developments in the field of IT. The establishment of JNIUCIT will immensely benefit Uzbekistan in raising the standards of IT education. JNIUCIT will help Government of Uzbekistan by acting as a hub of the various IT initiatives in the country. Exchange of experts and training of people from Uzbekistan will help upgrade and enhance the skills in related areas and develop much needed human resource in the country in the field of information & communications technology.