NEW
DELHI: The Indian government on Monday announced the
establishment of the PM’s Global Advisory Council of People of
Indian Origin, a high-level platform that would draw from the
knowledge and experience of the best Indian minds abroad.
Inaugurating the sixth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas
meet, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also launched an Overseas
Workers’ Resource Centre, a helpline for potential migrant workers
and a grievance redressal-cum-intervention mechanism for overseas
workers in distress. Over five million Indian workers live abroad
and the government expects two million more to join them during the
11th Five Year Plan (2007-12).
A Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra with modern facilities
for NRIs and PIOs will alsocome up at Chanakyapuri here by 2010.
Nearly 1,500 delegates from 50-odd countries are attending the
twoday convention. The PM allayed fears of overseas Indians and
urged them to develop good relations with the country’s missions
abroad. “Your security and welfare is our priority. I urge community
leaders to develop better liaison and coordination with our missions
to better serve our nonresident communities. It is through such
engagement that embassies will become more responsive to needs of
overseas Indians,” he said.
Singh said India was ready to achieve and sustain a 9-10% growth
rate during the 11th Plan and this would transform the economy into
a major powerhouse on the global scene. The emphasis, he added, was
to see India emerge as a leading knowledge-based economy and a major
education hub. In a clear indication of the government’s stand on
the Indo- US nuclear deal, the PM also conveyed special gratitude to
the Indian community in the US for mobilising support in favour of
the agreement.
Addressing a session on the social sector later, Planning Commission
deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said the government was
restructuring its role in health and education and these two core
areas needed to be focussed upon for putting India firmly on the
global map. “A lot more money, 2% of the GDP, would be put into the
health sector over the next five years. The outlay in education has
substantially gone up from 7.8% in 10th Plan to 19.4% in 11th Plan,”
he said. Science and technology minister Kapil Sibal said India had
achieved free flow of trade and services and was in the process of
achieving free flow of capital.
“Next stage is free flow of human resources and this is bound to happen.
Declining population is creating a human resource vacuum in the west
and the diaspora is favourably poised to fill this gap. The diaspora
has achieved both the tasks globally and a great opportunity awaits
the Indian and global community,”Sibal said.
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