Punjab's engagement with diaspora superficial: Thandi
The centre for research in economic change, department of economics, Punjabi University, on Tuesday organised a special lecture on 'Diaspora and development: realising the potential'. The expert rued that Punjab has not created the desired institutional mechanism to attract the diaspora in a big manner.
The centre for research in economic change, department of economics, Punjabi University, on Tuesday organised a special lecture on 'Diaspora and development: realising the potential'.
The lecture was delivered by Shinder Singh Thandi from Coventry University, UK, who highlighted the contribution of the immigrant population towards the homeland in the form of remittances and FDI. In case of India, the amount of remittances received currently is around US $60 billion and Punjab alone receives about US $10-15 billion.
“The relationship between diaspora and homeland, which earlier used to be one-way have changed and now it is a two-way process in which transfer of people, money, goods, services, political ideas and socio-cultural values take place between the homeland and diaspora,” he said.
The expert rued that Punjab has not created the desired institutional mechanism to attract the diaspora in a big manner.
“Ironically, Punjab's approach toward diaspora remains more of rhetoric than of concrete and continuous engagement as that of Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Punjab must change the start-cum-stop approach to diaspora,” he said.