NEW DELHI: In what promises to be a "major boost" for the country's technical education and engineering programmes, India became a permanent signatory of the Washington Accord, joining a select group of 17 countries.

According to the human resource development ministry, the status would provide "global mobility" to the country's technical and engineering graduates and enhance their "employment opportunities" around the world.

"This is major boost and will ensure highest quality assurance standards to be implemented in our technical and engineering programmes and provide global mobility to our engineering graduates," union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani said.

"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.

The announcement came following a meeting of the International Engineering Alliance of WA member countries in New Zealand.

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.