At the initiative of the President of India, Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, the Government of India is taking up a project to bridge the digital divide in Africa and facilitate tele-education and tele-medicine across 53 member countries of the African Union.

To be called The Pan-African Network Project, this initiative will enable India to share its expertise in the diverse areas of information and satellite technology, education and health care and demonstrate the benefits of tele-education and tele-medicine to the people of Africa. The PANP will also put in place a communications network that will provide state-of-the-art communication facilities and connectivity to all Heads of State/ Government in the African Union, including video-conferencing facilities.

The project is being undertaken with the help of ISRO, AIIMS, IGNOU and TCIL, a public sector undertaking under the Department of Telecommunications. The Prime Minister's Office has been monitoring the progress of the project. An MoU between the Government of India and the African Union will be signed in New Delhi on October 27th 2005.