Renewal of MOU with Rashtriya Raksha University in India
Raksha Shakti University, which has been declared an “institution of national importance”, was established in 2020 when the Indian parliament passed the Rashtriya Raksha University Act, upgrading the former state level Raksha Shakti University into a pioneering national security and police university. It is mandated to build national capacity by enhancing the skills of personnel who work in institutions related to India's national security and national defense. The meaning of the Hindi term “Rashtriya Raksha” is broader than “national defense”: it covers traditional military defense, and also includes both external and internal security, in the modern sense.
Peters Chen, the Director of the Education Division at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in India (TECC), first signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Rashtriya Raksha University three years ago, to promote educational relations, cooperate in the field of Mandarin teaching, and set up language programs and a Taiwan Education Center.
The university’s Mandarin language program is designed to assist the students—who include serving police officers, border force personnel, military personnel, and policy experts—to attain language proficiency adequate for their daily work.
Since the signing of the first 3-year MOU, Taiwan’s Ministry of Education has provided subsidies for qualified Mandarin teachers from Taiwan to work at the university. As well as providing Mandarin courses, the teachers have facilitated cooperation between institutions of higher education in Taiwan and institutions of higher education in India. It was agreed to defer the inauguration of the new Taiwan Education Centre at the university until this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it was held on March 22 in conjunction with a ceremony to renew the original MOU.
The renewed MOU was signed by Peters Chen, Director of the Education Division at the TECC in India, and Mr. Sushil Goswami, Registrar of Rashtriya Raksha University. The dignitaries at the signing ceremony included Mr. Baushuan Ger, Taiwan’s Representative in India, and Prof. Bimal N. Patel, the Vice Chancellor of Rashtriya Raksha University, and also a member of the International Law Commission in Geneva, and a member of India’s National Security Advisory Board, Dr. L. Venkateshwaran, Director of the School of International Cooperation, Security and Strategic Languages, and also a Global Fellow, Asia Program, Woodrow Wilson Centre for International Scholar, Washington DC, together with the university’s Mandarin teachers and other academic staff, and Ms. Jen Chun Tsai, and Mr. I-Chiuam Tsau from the TECC in India. Vice Chancellor Prof. Bimal N. Patel commented that TECC in India was the first foreign mission to work with Rashtriya Raksha University.
After the ceremony, there was also an inaugural multi-language festival. Students taking different language courses had prepared an exhibition of different associated clothing, foods, snacks, and toys, and explained the respective culture associated with the language they were studying to the distinguished guests and participants from other universities. Mandarin course students also interacted with the guests and talked about the content of their courses.
