Pan- African e-network project

India, in a joint initiative with the African Union, has launched the Pan-African e-network project, which will support tele-education, telemedicine, e-commerce, e-governance, infotainment, resource-mapping and meteorological services.

This project provides seamless and integrated satellite, fibre optics and wireless network, that connects 53 learning centres, 53 Remote Hospitals, 5 Regional Universities, and 5 Regional Hospitals spread all over Africa. From India 7 leading Universities and 12 Super Speciality Hospitals will provide the expert domain services through Tele-education and Tele-medicine respectively.

Phase 1 of Pan –African e-Network project was inaugurated by Hon’ble Mr.Pranab Mukherjee on 26th February 2009 whereas Phase 2 of Pan African e-Network project was inaugurated on 16th August 2010 by Hon’ble  Mr.S.M.Krishna.

Tele Medicine

The Tele-Medicine connectivity will enable 12 Super Specialty Hospitals to provide expert services to 53 Remote Hospitals that are equipped with the medical equipments such as Electro-Cardio-Gram (ECG), Ultra Sound, and pathology and X-Ray at each location.

Each remote location are to be equipped with Tele-Medicine hardware, camera and software. The software will be an integrated package capable of managing the patients, storing and forwarding the medical records and analyzing digitally signed prescription for advice to the remote patients.  Any doctor from any of the remote locations can refer the patient`s medical records to any of the Super Specialty Hospital and have a Tele-Medicine video session for live diagnosis and advice by the doctors on a scheduled time in association with the provider, Super Specialty Hospital, and the receiver and the Remote Tele-Medicine center.

Tele Education

The Tele-Education connectivity will enable 5 African Regional Leading Universities to be connected to the Hub via a 2mbbs broadband/VSAT (forward/uplink 2mbps/Return/downlink 512kbps) to 53 Remote Virtual Classes distributed in all the 53 countries.

Seven universities from India are connected via IPLC to the Hub located in Africa. India hosted a Tele-Education LMS portal comprising the university Tele-Education delivery system software that will incorporate the e-Learning, content management KMS (knowledge Management System) and digital library solutions for each university as an integrated package. All information about courses, Universities and learning Centers in India can be accessed from the portal.

Access to the Tele-Education will be possible from anywhere with an Internet connection for other registered student/users. Online and offline lecture sessions will be provided under the Tele-Education network. After a live session, the session will be recorded in a knowledge management system for offline Access.  The content management software will be flexible, scalable, and configurable. The African Universities will be able to configure and generate their own local content designed for local need.