NRI opportunities for the government of India

BY PAWAN LUTHRA

Awe go to print, India has st celebrated its 14'" Pravasi harati ya Divas in Bengalmu eralded as the largest ever gathering o f overseas Indians, the event was attended, as per official estimates, by over 7,000 delegates, of whom l 500 were NR1s and 500 were floating NRis. This from over 30,000,000 NRis globally. Yes, less than 0.007% of the target aud ience were in atte ndance.

Once the arumal conference is over, i t may be worthwhile for those in charge to question whether there is a better way to engage with g lobal Indians. That they want to en gage i s clear from the ongoing staging of the Pravasi Bharatiya D ivas (PBD) , but is this annual talk fest winning and making inroads in the hearts and minds of the Rls?

Do they deser ve more from the government of India?

On one hand, when NRls relinquish their citizenship or res idence status, they are less of a responsibility of the Indian government. Yet, what t he RI has to offer co India, should be enough of an incentive for the 1ndian government to work through ways of greater engagernem with this community

The 30 million non-resident Indians are largel y highly successful in their new country According to an estimat e from a leading US source, "If NR1s were a country, their GDP would be i n excess of US $800 billion, equal to 40% of 1ndia's GDP, even though t heir popuJation is less than 3% of resident Indians " There also i s an esti ma te that Rls' re mi ttances to India stood at US$68.91 billion in 2015, accounting for over 4°/t) of the country's GDP. This is growing as more Indians fan our across the g lo be.

LookiJ1g at the financial returns alone, without taking into account the soft power opportunities which this community can exert, this is an extremely important resource which should be marshalled and used to wo rk towards India's g rowth

W ith an estimated 500,000 people of Indian origin in Australia, we do represent a very small part of the 'lndiaspora'. Bm what we lack in numbers, we do make up in passion for all things Indian.Just look at the mrnout during the India- Australia cricket series, or the revenue 6gmes from Australia when major BoUywood blockbusters are released, to become aware that while the " Indian can be taken out o f India, it is harde r co take the India out of the Indian".

On a more practical basis, PBD derails need to be circulated in the community much earlier in the year ratbe1: than a few weeks prior to 9 January. Most India n Australians plan their India trip during thi s holiday tin1e much earlier i n the year, and knowing details o f PBD may allow fo r a greater participation. Perhaps working on a delegation representing Australian Indians to atte nd as a cohort, may bring further momentm11 from the community PBD i s but one occasion of the many opportunities for the Indian government to engage with the local community. Inviting great er interaction from the comm unity such as an A ustralia India Day for an open forwn to meet with consul ar officials, could be one such new opportunity, by way of example

After all, the passion for providing greater opportunities for India is shared by both Indian government offices here, and the local Indian community

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