India Courts NRIs with High-Tech Initiatives
By Pramod Kulkarni
Last updated: March 20, 2009
 |
 |
HOUSTON: Hundred and sixty years ago, Indians from faminestruck hinterlands boarded British sailing ships, some of them used earlier to transport slaves to America, and crossed the black ocean to Mauritius, South Africa and the West Indies as indentured laborers. Today, the Indian diaspora throughout the world is 30- million strong and is in a position of strength to help the motherland through charitable donations, business investments and technology expertise.
The Indian government has recognized the value of its diaspora through a series of strategic initiatives. The government recently created a Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA), which has been responsible for hosting the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas and citizenship programs such as OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) and PIO (Person of Indian Origin).
The MOIA is currently launching three web-enabled initiatives. To explain these programs, MOIA Secretary, K. Mohandas, is leading a delegation of government and business leaders to the U.S. cities of New York, San Jose and Houston. The delegation was in Houston last weekend and presented its initiatives to a gathering of over 100 Indo-Americans at the India House last Friday, March 13 evening.
The delegation included Thomas Abraham, Chairman of GOPIO (Global Organization of People of Indian Origin), who has been instrumental in bringing issues of concern to NRIs to the attention of the Indian government. Abraham said he got involved in FIA (Federation of Indian Associations) in the New York area during the 1980s to combat human right violations instigated by the Dotbusters gang in New Jersey and the overthrow of the Fijian government led by a prime minister of Indian origin.
Among the special guests at the reception was UH Chancellor Renu Khator. Dr. Khator had attended the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2009 held in January in Chennai as the chair of its Education Panel. She recommended attending the annual event as a “fantastic opportunity to network and enjoy the hospitality of India.”
Consul General Sanjiv Arora introduced the delegation. Speaking on behalf of India House were Dr. Durga Agarwal, Ashok Dhingra and Dr. Virendra Mathur. Ramesh Anand served ably as the emcee.
The delegates took a tour of India House and were impressed by the facility as a model for overseas Indian communities in the United States as well as around the world.
India ’s Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) has introduced three web-enabled initiatives to help NRIs 1) invest in India, 2) make charitable contributions and 3) share their professional expertise with greater ease and transparency.
Overseas Indian Facilitation Center (OI FC):
OIFC is a not-for-profit, public- private partnership between the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Envisi oned to function as a one stop-shop for Non-Resident Indians and Persons of Indian Origin, the OIFC has a mandate to cover two broad areas viz. investment facilitation and knowledge networking.
OIFC provides consultative, advisory and handholding services in broad sectors such as capital market investment, manufacturing, service sector investment, taxation issues and real estate investment. OIFC would be providing customised services with the focus on the following: finding sector and state specific investment project for the individual investors, preparing feasibility study reports related to different projects, ssisting states by organising overseas road shows to attract FDIs, and facilitating investors through various forums. For additional information, visit www.oifc.in
India Development Foundation
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, while inaugurating the Sixth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas at New Delhi , announced the proposal to establish an autonomous not-for-profit trust titled the ‘India Development Foundation’. Explaining its need and rationale, the Prime Minister said:
“This Foundation will serve as a credible institutional mechanism to direct overseas Indian philanthropic propensities into human development efforts in India . The Foundation will assist overseas Indians to contribute to the cause of education, health and rural development in their erstwhile home villages, districts or states.
It will also partner with credible NGOs and philanthropic organizations actively engaged in social development, thus providing a strong public-private partnership bridge between overseas Indians and their target beneficiaries.” For additional information, contact MOIA Joint Secretary G. Gurucharan via email: jsfs@moia.nic
Global Indian Network of Knowledge (Global-IN K)
Prime Minister Singh inaugurated the Global-INK initiative at the Seventh Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Chennai. The key objective of this initiative is to draw upon the eclectic knowledge base of the Indian Diaspora and unleash innovation across sectors and geographies in India through well designed projects and community action with targeted and measurable outcomes.
It seeks to catalyze the capability of the Indian Diaspora into institutionalised programs for development and transformation.
OIFC has partnered with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to develop the Global-INK framework. An online web portal, it is powered by SupportCentral, a next-generation knowledge management platform. The portal will be a framework of Communities catering to different focus areas. The Communities will provide a context to connect knowledge experts with knowledge seekers.
The Communities will also provide an array of collaboration tools: blogs, forums, ask an expert, document management and sharing, and online resource databases. For additional information, visit www.globalink.in
After the MOIA presentation at India House last Friday, a few questions from the audience related to the ranking of NGOs for an overseas Indian donor.
MOIA Secretary K. Mohandas said the NGOs will have a proven track record of service, transparency and accountability and would be screened and thoroughly vetted before their names are suggested to potential donors.
Krishna Vavilala of the Foundation of India Studies at the University of Houston said the program was looking for a professor of Indian history and asked Mohandas if his ministry could help.
Vinod Shah, of ABC Travels, expressed frustration at the consulate’s slow response in processing passports and other documents of Indian citizens who did not enter the U.S. through proper channels. Consul-general Arora took up the question and said that he had instructed his staff that every email query must be answered the same day. “We will try our best to resolve the issue and get back with the information,” he said and added that sometimes the resolution may not be to the applicant’s satisfaction, but the consulate staff will give a reply within a reasonable period.
Another question concerned the fine print in a 10-year visa to India which requires registration by the traveler within 14 days of arrival in India “for visas valid for more than 180 days.” A traveler can spend an entire day and a few hundred rupees to comply with the requirement. The enforcement of this rule has been very inconsistent and some unlucky visitors have had to reschedule their return journey even if they were in India for two or three weeks.
There was a common sense way of getting around it with a stamp on the visa from the consulate, which stated “Registration not required if continuous stay on a single visit does not exceed 180 days.” Recently the government has stopped that practice, because, according to Arora, immigration officers have been instructed to waive the requirement if the visitor has stayed for less than 180 days. But the language of the fine print remains the same and there is every likelihood of abuse and capricious application of the rule. Arora said getting a PIO or OCI card is the best way around the problem.
|
