Govt may restrict its Pravasi push to one-day affair

The falling number of participants and waning enthusiasm of non-resident Indians for the Pravasi Bhartiya Diwas (PBD), the annual get-together of the Indian diaspora, has forced the government to think of reducing it to a day-long event next year.

The government feels that the Rs 6 crore state-sponsored event, which was first held in 2003 for three days, is "no longer serving the purpose of connecting the overseas Indians with their motherland".

According to Union Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi, the government has realised that persons of Indian origin (PIOs) are only interested in attending interactive sessions with the chief ministers.

For this reason, he says, the government is considering a proposal to confine the future PBDs to a day-long affair limiting itself to the interactive sessions with the CMs.

"We found the PIOs highly interested in wanting to know as to what was happening on the ground "" that is in the states. Also, most of them visited the state pavilions and raised queries during their interactions," said Ravi. According to official sources, nearly 800 PIOs had attended this year's PBD, compared with some 1,000 last year.

Although the government is miffed at the fact that the PIOs have made just 5 per cent of the total foreign direct investments (FDI) in India during last 20 years, it is hopeful that they would contribute towards a proposed foundation, announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the sixth PBD, that promises to use their money for rural development.

To expedite setting up of the foundation, tentatively named as Pravasi Bhartiya Kosh, the ministry is searching for experts from the fields of finance, international relations, rural development and law to set up a committee that, in turn, would frame the structure of the foundation.

Ravi said the government would use the funds as investment in micro-finance and for philanthropic purposes, like building a school or a public healthcare centre at the place of choice of the donor NRI. The government would also enlist NGOs that could carry out the task.

Significantly, the contributions from the PIOs to this fund would be exempted from the purview of the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act (FCRA).

Ravi agreed with the opinion of NRI participants in the PBD that the stringent regulations of the FCRA were coming in the way of flow of funds for philanthropic projects in India.

"This was a genuine concern which we are now trying to address through the new foundation," the minister said.