First IIT outside India will be in Tanzania: Ministry of External Affairs

New Delhi: The first IIT campus outside India will come up in Tanzania's Zanzibar, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Thursday.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed for setting up of a campus of IIT Madras in Zanzibar, which is a Tanzanian archipelago off the coast of East Africa.

The agreement was inked on Wednesday in presence of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Zanzibar's President Hussein Ali Mwinyi. Jaishakar is on a visit to Tanzania.

"The first IIT campus to be set up outside India will be in Zanzibar," the MEA said. It said an MoU was signed between the India's education ministry, IIT Madras and Zanzibar's ministry of education and vocational training.

"This campus is reflective of the longstanding friendship between India and Tanzania and a reminder of the focus India places on building people to people ties across Africa and the Global South," the MEA said.

It said the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 recommends that "high performing Indian universities will be encouraged to set up campuses in other countries”.

"Recognising the strategic partnership between Tanzania and India, the relationship of educational partnership has been formalised by signing the document which provides the framework for the parties to detail out the setting up of the proposed campus of IIT Madras in Zanzibar-Tanzania, with plans to launch programmes in October 2023," the MEA said.