The External Affairs Minister Mr.S.M. Krishna today inaugurated the second phase of the Pan-African e-Network Project covering twelve countries at TCIL Bhawan. High Commissioners and Ambassadors of African countries and senior officers of MEA were present on the occasion. Mr. Krishana held online interaction on bilateral matters with senior ministers and other high-ranking dignitaries in each of the twelve African countries individually through the network. He urged all the countries to take full advantage of the complete range of services offered by India in the tele-education and tele-medicine fields. Inaguarating the network he described the e-Network Project as one of the finest examples of the growing partnership between India and Africa. He noted that this is the biggest project of distance education and tele-medicine ever undertaken in Africa. The project is also equipped to support e-governance, e-commerce, infotainment, resource mapping and meteorological and other services in the African countries, besides providing VVIP connectivity among the Heads of State of the African countries through a highly secure closed satellite network. Our correspondent adds that the basic objective of the project is to assist Africa in capacity building by way of imparting quality education to 10,000 students in Africa over a 5-year period in various disciplines from some of the best Indian Universities. Besides, this would provide Tele-Medicine services by way of on line medical consultation to the medical practioners at the Patient End Location in Africa by Indian Medical specialists in various disciplines specialties selected by African Union for its Member States.