In what can be seen as a boost for techies, India on Friday became a permanent member of the Washington Accord (WA), an elite international agreement on engineering studies and mobility of engineers.

The country now joins a select group of 17 countries who are permanent signatories of the WA. “The signatory status will substantially increase global employment opportunities for technical and engineering graduates,” HRD Minister Smriti Irani said in a statement issued by the Ministry.

Washington Accord is an international agreement amongst prominent nations of the world, with the charter of promoting mobility and quality assurance of engineers across international boundaries.

The charter requires that nations set up suitable accreditation standards, which would ensure a minimum quality of attainment for their engineering graduates.

Irani said, “This will ensure highest quality assurance standards to be implemented in our technical and engineering programmes and provide global mobility to our engineering graduates.”

“Graduates having degrees, which have been so accredited, would have substantial international equivalence of their achievement levels across the signatory nations. This will substantially enhance their employment opportunities around the world,” she added.

Former HRD Minister Pallam Raju also tweeted: Congratulations to MHRD, after a seven-year effort by the Ministry, India has gained permanent membership of the Washington Accord!

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