Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas (PBD), the annual conference of non-resident Indians, will be held in New Delhi on January 8 and 9 with a focus on rural development initiatives.According to Vayalar Ravi, Minister for Overseas Indians Affairs (OIA), the focus of PBD had been to attract investment from NRIs rather than their ideas and skills. "The investment or money has not been forthcoming. Therefore, we decided that we will not ask for any investment this year but seek partnership from NRIs for philanthropic projects," he said. The OIA ministry and the Confederation of Indian Industries have decided to partner the event for the second year in a row, and the focus will be on micro-finance institutions at the block level and the health sector. "After much thought and research, we found that these were the sectors that could attract a lot of interest from the NRI community," Ravi said. Ravi said the conference was expected to be attended by at least 2,000 delegates from over 50 countries. The chief guest for this year's conference would be Mauritian Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam.
