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NRIs now have a ministry to fall back on: Tytler
From henceforth, you will see a great energy in the Govt vis-a-vis the Indian diaspora, Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs said.
The 25 million strong overseas Indian community, spread across the globe, now has a separate ministry to look into their issues, Minister of State for Overseas Indian Affairs Jadgish Tytler has said.
"From henceforth, you will see a great energy in the government vis-a-vis the Indian diaspora," Tytler told a gathering of more than 100 top businessmen of Indian origin at a reception organised by the India-Thai Chamber of Commerce and the India-Thai Business Forum.
"Earlier, there were lots of people to listen to you but not to represent you, now I am there and it is my duty to listen to your views and suggestions and coordinate with the 25 million strong overseas Indians", Tytler, who is on a whistle-stop tour of south-east Asia, said.
Inviting the audience for the upcoming Pravasi Bharati Diwas in Mumbai in January, Tytler said, "Come the country is calling you. Come to your roots, so that your next generation feels India is a part and parcel of their life."
The minister, who arrived here from Kuala Lumpur last evening, said that the response from NRIs and ethnic Indians to the formation of a separate overseas Indian Affairs ministry was "simply amazing".
"Indians in Singapore, Malaysia, Dubai wondered why such a ministry was not set up ten years ago... These are Indians who left India many years ago, some as early as 1809, but still have strong roots with their motherland," he said.
The minister said one of the major demands from Indians across Malaysia, Singapore and Dubai were about education facilities and quotas for NRIs in Indian educational institutions.
Several parents who lived outside India wanted their children to go to the country and continue their education.
"With the demands of educational facilities we have been receiving from overseas Indians, we need at least five universities," he said.
Hundreds of children of Thai Indian parents study in Indian boarding schools due to the high quality of education and English from the primary level, he added.
The minister said he had begun his visit from south Asia first as the "Far East is very important. The biggest diaspora is in Malaysia followed by Singapore and Thailand".
He said he had plans to hold similar Pravasi Bharati gatherings in South-East Asia, Africa, Europe and North America.
Tytler, who left for Hong Kong today, is on a whirlwind tour of nations to invite overseas Indians to the annual "Pravasi Bharati Diwas".
After Hong Kong, the minister will fly to Delhi and later to Europe, Indonesia, New Zealand and Australia.
