HYDERABAD, 8 January 2006 — Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Oscar Fernandes yesterday extended an invitation to overseas Indians to participate in India’s exciting march toward progress and prosperity.
Addressing the inaugural session of the 4th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2006 here, Fernandes told the overseas delegates “if there is one virtue that defines the overseas Indian community, it is your knowledge, expertise and skills across a wide gamut of sectors.”
“We will seek to build a bridge between India and the global Indian to transform ideas into individual initiatives and community action. We wish to benefit from your knowledge just as we want all of you to benefit from the enormous opportunities that India offers,” he told them.
He said that the primary objective of the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs would be to establish an institutional framework for sustainable and mutually beneficial engagement between India and its diaspora.
“We will seek to build this framework through three kinds of partnerships,” he added.
Knowledge partnerships with professional bodies of overseas Indians in diverse sectors will be promoted.
For instance, the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs would forge a partnership with the American Association of the Physicians of Indian origin to work together in the health care sector in India.
“Back home, we would like to partner with institutions such as NASSCOM. The idea will be to have the knowledge partner bring domain knowledge in a specific field of activity and partner with us to launch initiatives that would be mutually beneficial,” he explained.
Institutional partners with apex associations of overseas Indians are also envisaged to give the outreach capability to India. “We believe this is the best way to reach out to every Indian across the globe. In India, we will similarly forge partnerships with apex associations such as FICCI, Confederation of Indian Industry, Assocham etc.,” he added.
The third important partnership that the ministry would vigorously promote is to the states in India as stakeholder partners. Any initiatives by the overseas Indians whether individually or collectively must be anchored in one of the states of India.
“It is these partnerships that can nurture and make strong the process of engagement of India with its diaspora over the medium to long-term,” he pointed out.
“We have defined the theme of this conference as ‘coming together. Working together’. We wish to make a paradigm shift in the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas here in Hyderabad. We will seek to transform this from a mere event into a global forum that will target specific outcomes. We will also seek to follow up with a road map supported by institutions working together,” he added.
Gulf Sector May Soon Open Up for Private Budget Airlines
The Gulf sector, which looks protected today, will also open up to private airlines in the near future, secretary, Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, Krishna Kumar said here yesterday.
At a media conference on the first day of 4th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas convention here, he said that there was a specific, longstanding demand from the NRIs in the Gulf for a budget airline.
The public sector Air-India has already formed a budget airline called Air-India Express which is catering to the needs of Gulf NRIs. “With substantial fleet acquisition recently finalized, Air-India is likely to operate more schedules to more destinations in the near future. I am sure Hyderabad will be one of them,” he added.
Reacting to a comment that Air-India’s budget airline service was a “punishment” for passengers, he said Air-India was providing the budget airline services and there was a complaint that it was curtailing its regular schedules and operating more express schedules. “It (the budget airline) is a no frills thing. There is some merit in what you say,” he told the questioner. “The aviation sector is getting so crowded with more players entering the scene. I am sure the private airlines will soon knock at the doors of the Center to give them foreign routes and schedules. This is going to happen soon,” he said.
Recently, Air Deccan formed a subsidiary with Air Lanka. “They are going to have schedules operating between Sri Lanka and south India. Other private airlines are also likely to form partnerships and operate more traffic in the Gulf region and other routes,” he added.
