AP gears up for Pravasi Bharatiya Divas

The Union ministry of overseas Indian affairs is planning to launch a universal integrated electronic remittance gateway for the card under overseas Indians and overseas citizens scheme at the three-day 'Pravasi Bharatiya Divas' to be held here from January 7, 2006. The Andhra Pradesh government is the co-sponsor of the convention.

According to minister of overseas Indian affairs, Oscar Fernandes, over 1,200 delegates from abroad and 800 from India are expected to take part in the convention, which has been evolved as a flagship global forum for socio-economic and cultural interaction between those living in the country and abroad.

Fernandes, who reviewed the arrangements being made by the state government for the convention on Friday, told newspersons that the convention centre would be ready by December 15. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been requested to inaugurate the convention and President A P J Abdul Kalam will give away awards on the concluding day.

The uniqueness of the forthcoming convention would be the presence of delegations led by the chief ministers of various states.

"All the chief ministers will be able to interact with all the delegations. The convention will also discuss ways of overcoming road blocks in the flow of non-resident Indian investments into the country," Fernandes said.

Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy said that the state government had constituted a group of ministers with industry and tourism minister J Geeta Reddy as the coordinator to oversee the arrangements for the convention. Presentations would be made to the Indian diaspora on the potential of each district in the state.

The chief minister said that a large number of Telugu-speaking people residing abroad have evinced interest in taking part in the convention and many of them have already started making reservations. APInvest, a single window organisation for attracting investments to the state, would take care of the non-resident Indians' investment proposals.