Abu Dhabi: India has announced to set up the first Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as part of the India-UAE trade deal signed on February 18, 2022.
This will be the first time an IIT would be established outside of the country.
IITs are the national institute of India and presently there are 23 IITs in the country. These 23 IITs are located in various regions of the country offering undergraduate (UG), postgraduate (PG) and doctorate (PhD) level programmes. The top IITs in India are IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay, IIT Kharagpur, and IIT Madras. Predominantly, IITs are known for offering B Tech and M Tech degree programmes.
Admission to IIT is through the Advanced Joint Entrance Examination (JEE). The highest-ranking eligible students in JEE Mains are eligible to appear on the JEE Advanced. Indian expatriate students usually visit India to write these exams.
Among the most famous “IITians” are Google CEO, Sundar Pichai; the face of the Indian IT industry N. R. Narayana Murthy; bestselling novelist and writer Chetan Bhagat; and former Governor and Economist of the Reserve Bank of India Raghuram Rajan.
India-UAE CEPA pact
On Friday, February 18, India signed a historic trade pact – Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) – with the UAE during a bilateral meeting between the two countries.
The vision statement talked about boosting bilateral trade to $100 billion within five years, supporting the energy transition and working on a low-carbon future, establishing a joint hydrogen working group to develop technology and establishing an IIT in the UAE.
The deal will also help reduce import duties on most Indian goods exported to the UAE. Besides, this will provide Indian exporters with much broader access to the larger Arab and African markets.
The agreement was signed by Union Trade and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal during a bilateral meeting with the UAE delegation headed by Minister of Economy Abdullah bin Touq Al-Marri and Minister of State for Foreign Trade Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi.
