February 7: The Prime Minister Lyonchhen Jigmi Y. Thinley and the Chairman of Indian ICT giant- the National Institute for Information Technology (NIIT), Mr. Rajendra S. Pawar, met in the Indian capital this morning to take the Total Solutions Project forward.

The Nu. 2.05 billion project, funded by the government of India, is aimed at creating a knowledge-based Bhutanese society by harnessing information and communications technology.

The Information and Communications Secretary, Dasho Kinley Dorji, who also attended the meeting today along with the Bhutanese ambassador in New Delhi and the GNH Commission Secretary, said the meeting discussed concepts, goals and expectations from the project.

"Today’s meeting was for the PM to clarify, to make it very clear, to make our goals very clear, the concept of the project, the boundaries, what are our expectations from the project like training of civil servants, training of teachers in ICT, Equipping schools with computer labs, introducing ICT education in some of the educational institutions about 11 or so and setting up learning centres around Bhutan. So this is a very big project and right now we laying the ground work, coming to very clear understanding between the government and the NIIT as we go ahead with the implementation." said Dasho Kinley Dorji.

The Prime Minister and the Chairman of NIIT will meet again in Mumbai next week to discuss the project further, on the sidelines of the World HRD Congress where the PM is the keynote speaker.

The  Total Solutions Project will provide access to information technology and IT solutions to a significant proportion of Bhutan’s population, including government officials, teachers, entrepreneurs and rural children, by training and establishing ICT enabled schools, computer labs, and computer stations in rural Bhutan over the next five years.

PM meets former Indian Ambassadors

The Prime Minister Lyonchhen Jigmi Y. Thinley met with eight former Indian Ambassadors to Bhutan at an informal gathering at the Royal Bhutan Embassy in New Delhi last evening.

The former ambassadors were B.S. Das, I.P. Khosla, R. Hiremath, Salman Haidar, A.N. Ram, Nareshwar Dayal, Vinod C. Khanna, and Dalip Mehta.

Speaking at the occasion, the Prime Minister said India’s ambassadors to Bhutan have played an important role in Bhutan’s Development, shaping Indo-Bhutan relations, and generally lifting Bhutan’s profile in the international community.

Lyonchhen Jigmi Y. Thinley said if Bhutan has become a subject of some degree of admiration around the world it was attributable to the special benefits that Bhutan has enjoyed through its special relationship with India.

"It is our relationship, this excellent and exemplary bilateral relationship and I keep using the word this very special relationship that we enjoy, a word that some countries loathe to use when they speak of bilateral relations but I make special mention of this adjective. And it is because of this relationship that there are reasons for Bhutan to be proud of its accomplishments, that we have arrived at where we are, we have gone as far as we have in becoming a country that appears to be the subject of some degree of admiration around the world." said the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister told the former ambassadors that each of them has considerably contributed in making Bhutan what it is today. He said all of them have been taken into confidence by the monarchs of Bhutan.

He also told them that each of them has gone beyond their official responsibility to share their inner thoughts and giving very good advice. He thanked the ambassadors for being an important guide for Bhutan and the Monarchs.