Labour welfare pacts with more Gulf nations soon
New Delhi, Jan 8 (IANS) India is taking a number of steps to ensure protection and welfare of Indian workers in the Gulf, Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi said Sunday.
Stating that a memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed between India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) towards this objective, Ravi said that similar bilateral labour agreements would be signed with Kuwait, Bahrain and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries in the next few months.
“Each year, about one million workers from India go overseas for employment,” the minister said, speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) 2007, the annual conclave of the Indian diaspora.
Labour welfare pacts with more Gulf nations soon
New Delhi, Jan 8 (IANS) India is taking a number of steps to ensure protection and welfare of Indian workers in the Gulf, Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi said Sunday.
Stating that a memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed between India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) towards this objective, Ravi said that similar bilateral labour agreements would be signed with Kuwait, Bahrain and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries in the next few months.
“Each year, about one million workers from India go overseas for employment,” the minister said, speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) 2007, the annual conclave of the Indian diaspora.
“The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are the top destination countries.”
He said that the migration process tends to be exploitative for the Indian workers and needs transformation into a more orderly economic process offering a win-win situation for all stakeholders.
“Since a significant number of them work in informal sectors, they often do not have the protection of labour laws in the host country,” Ravi said.
In his inaugural speech, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh thanked the overseas Indians, especially those in the Gulf, “for the handsome contribution their remittances make to the strengthening of our economy”.
Later, at a working session on Indians in the Gulf, held as part of PBD 2007, Ravi said that Indians could now get passports with the ECNR (Emigration Clearance Not Required) stamp after passing the 10th standard instead of the 12th standard as was done earlier.
He said that an NRI centre would be opened in Dubai to look after the Indian community in the UAE.
Speaking at the session, Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed raised certain issues faced by the Indians in the Gulf, including poor living conditions, lack of facilities for professional education and rehabilitation problems, which needed to be addressed.
Describing Indians in the Gulf as “unnamed ambassadors of India”, Rajya Sabha MP K. Jana Krishnamurthy called for suitable amendments to the Emigration Act, 1983.
He urged them to form an apex body for socio-cultural affairs so that they can interact with the respective Indian embassies to address their problems.
Jana Krishnamurthy called upon NRIs in that region to use their influence to get their host countries to invest in India. Also, he advised Ravi to depute an officer of his Ministry to visit the Gulf countries on a regular basis.
Balachandran Nair, general convenor of the Non-Resident Keralites Welfare Forum in Saudi Arabia, called for better air connectivity between India and the Gulf nations because of the burgeoning air-traffic in this sector.
He said the education system in India needed to shift from imparting theoretical knowledge to practical training so that Indians migrating to that region could get better jobs.
PIOs need better educational facilities: Ravi
There is urgent need for India to extend high quality and economical educational facilities to people of Indian origin (PIOs), Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Valayar Ravi said Sunday.
Scholarships offered to needy NRI students for the purpose was not enough, the minister said in his address at a session on the Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD), the annual conclave of the Indian diaspora.
Singapore GOPIO president V.P. Nair said more and more PIOs and NRIs could be engaged to improve the quality of technical education in India.
Mauritius GOPIO president Mahyendrah Utchanah said the organisation was looking to adopt 50 villages in India for implementing different development projects.
“By engaging PIOs, India will not only gain financial capital but also access raw material from around the world,” US GOPIO secretary-general Ashook Ramsaran said.
“For example, countries like Brazil and Guyana can become suppliers of industrial minerals, which can be facilitated by PIOs,” he pointed out.
GOPIO was founded at the first global convention of the people of Indian origin in New York in 1989. The initial thrust of GOPIO was fighting human rights violations against PIOs.
NRIs are brain banks: Prahalad
Non-resident Indians (NRIs) do not represent ‘brain drain’ but are ‘brain banks’, renowned corporate strategist C.K Prahalad said here Sunday.
While delivering a lecture on ‘India as a source of innovation’ on the occasion of the Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas (PBD) 2007, he said that India today is at the cusp of an opportunity to emerge as a nation that uniquely combines globalisation and innovations in social and economic development on an unprecedented scale.
If India can exploit the twin driving forces of globalisation and innovations in social and economic development, the country can achieve significant growth – both socially and economically, said Prahalad, professor of corporate strategy at University of Michigan.
According to him, implementing solutions in India requires a deep understanding of the local politics and local needs. The country cannot and must not import pre-packaged solutions and it must develop its own, he said.
Calling on NRIs to organise themselves to focus their energies on benefiting India, Prahalad stressed the need to construct apolitical forums for NRI contribution, especially the highly motivated and young people in the 20-35 age group.
He said while the NRI community is always eager to help and transform India, the Indian government should also make crucial and fundamental changes.
IANS
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