Statistics are not unimportant. Recent data suggests that all categories of people of Indian background living overseas the familiar NRI (the Indian national living abroad for chunks of time each year), the PIO (person of Indian origin) whose forebears migrated decades or even a century ago under the force of colonial circumstances, or the OCI (overseas citizen of India), typically an Indian who has picked up foreign citizenship more recently but is keen to retain family and other bonds with India send back as remittances $70 billion per year, beating the Chinese to it.
This is about four per cent of India’s GDP and is higher than India’s IT exports. That sums up the potential of the part the 25 million Indian people living in all parts of the world can play.
About a third of the remittances come from Indians in the Gulf, who are generally working class, and this helps shore up the Indian macroeconomic picture no end.
It is time someone from those parts received the Pravasi Samman award. Remittances generally go for the improvement of the conditions of the families back home the building of a house, children’s education, and the upkeep of the elderly, all laudable ends.
The Chinese have lately fallen behind the Indians in sending remittances because the living standards of the Chinese people have risen.
Now the Chinese send money home for investments in a bigger way than before, as FDI. If India offers an enabling environment, the better off Indians in North America (in the US, they are the single most prosperous overseas community), Western Europe, and Africa, can be encouraged to perform this role.
They can also help bring technology and expertise. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his inaugural speech on Thursday at the Pravasi Bharat conference being held at Gandhinagar this year, we don’t look to the Indians abroad for their “pound sterling and dollar” alone, but think of them as a resource.
Former PM Rajiv Gandhi had pointedly refused to see educated Indians going abroad as “brain drain”, but thought of them as Indian resource abroad.
In countries where Indians live, they are a distinct social and political factor which works as pro-India leverage. Also, as Mr Modi said, India had now “risen” a very different situation from the early days.
This offers the overseas Indian attractive prospects in fields as diverse as business, education and spiritual and emotional fulfilment.
The Pravasi Bharat Divas was established by the Vajpayee government to mark the date when Mahatma Gandhi returned from South Africa.
This is the centenary of that significant event. Can we enable the Indian overseas to play a part across the canvas of India, just as the Mahatma did?
