A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between the Indian Culinary Institute (ICI) an autonomous body under the Ministry of Tourism, and Indira Gandhi National Tribal University (IGNTU), Amarkantak in New Delhi today. The MOU was signed for imparting collaborative degree programmes including research in the field of culinary arts. The Minister of State (IC) of Tourism and Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Shri K.J Alphons; Secretary (Tourism), Smt. Rashmi Verma and Vice Chancellor, IGNTU, Prof. T.V Kattimani, were present for the signing.ICI has its campuses at Tirupati and Noida. The academic courses from Noida campus would commence from 2018-19 batch and further batches at Tirupati campus from 2018-19 academic session.The main objective of setting up of the ICI was to institutionalize a mechanism to support efforts intended to preserve, document, promote and disseminate Indian Cuisine, meet the sectoral requirement of specialists specific to Indian Cuisine, as also of promoting Cuisine as a Niche Tourism product. The ICIs will be Centres of Excellence which will offer structured regular programmes of study specific to culinary arts and culinary management leading to graduate and post graduate level degrees, promote research and innovation, organize demand driven certificate and diploma courses, document and create data base specific to Indian cuisine and commission studies and survey on cuisine. Indian Culinary Institute would provide the appropriate training platform at par with the elite “Chef Schools” functioning in different parts of the developed world.The ICIs will also help the local youth to get trained in these streams as well as create entrepreneurs and make them self-sufficient. The hotel and tourism industry will also get benefitted by getting the trained and skilled manpower which in turn will enhance their business and thus generate gainful employment.