External Affairs Minister Smt. Sushma Swaraj was not here with us physically, but let me tell you and I'm sure Secretary will also brief you in greater detail, she has been following minute to minute what has been happening in the Pravasi Divas. She has been seeking, virtually, hourly reports as to how things are going, what the reaction has been and how has been the response so far. So we have been able to report that response has been uniformly positive. This has been easily the biggest Pravasi Bharatiya Divas ever in terms of the sheer number of delegates who have come from large number of countries, the kind of panel discussions we had etc.
To brief you on that of course I have with me Shri Dnyaneshwar Mulay, our Secretary Overseas Indian Affairs and CPV. But first I will brief you on the three bilateral meetings that Prime Minister had today before his departure back to Delhi.
The first meeting was with the Vice President of Suriname, His Excellency Michael Ashwin Adhin. Prime Minister congratulated Vice President on his very inspiring address at the Youth PBD. Vice President Adhin that this was the first Pravasi Bharatiya Divas that he was attending, but he could already see that this was an excellent platform for redefining engagement with the Indian diaspora.
The two leaders than discussed various sectors of bilateral cooperation such as Animal Husbandry, Agriculture, Palm oil and Wood processing. Vice President Adhin said he saw considerable potential for Ayurveda in Suriname and sought India's help to create an ecosystem for the propagation of Ayurveda in Suriname. Prime Minister Modi suggested that to begin with Surinamese could enroll in courses in Indian Ayurveda universities to learn the discipline and then scale up to develop Suriname as the Ayurveda capital of Latin America.
The Vice President of Suriname also sought Indian investment in various sectors such as Pharmaceuticals and Mining in Suriname because he said that Suriname is the gateway to Latin America and Indian investors who will invest in these kinds of sectors could then utilize Suriname to export to other countries in Central and Latin America. He said Suriname is very rich in minerals such as gold and bauxite.
Vice President Adhin also sought an early meeting of the India Suriname Joint Commission to take forward bilateral cooperation. The two leaders also discussed global issues such as UN Security Council reform. Vice President Adhin reaffirmed Suriname's support for India as a permanent member of an expanded UN Security Council. So that was the readout on the first meeting that Prime Minster had.
His second meeting was with two very prominent Malaysian leaders. He met with Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu,Special Envoy for India for Infrastructure and Datuk Seri Dr. S Subramaniam, Minister of Health and President of the Malaysian Indian Congress. As you may know Mr. Samy Vellu has been a regular at Pravasi Bharatiya Divas and has probably attended all previous 13 PBDs as well. The Prime Minister congratulated both leaders on their contribution to the development of India-Malaysia friendship. They all discussed the follow-up to Prime Minister Modi's bilateral visit to Malaysia in November 2015 and the far-reaching accords in various spheres of bilateral cooperation.
Prime Minister said he looked forward to a visit to India by the Malaysian Prime Minister His Excellency Mr. Najib Razak. Then there was a brief discussion on some bilateral projects in areas such Hydro-carbons.
The final bilateral meeting that Prime Minister had today was with the Foreign Minister of France, His Excellency Jean-Marc Ayrault. Prime Minister welcomed the French Foreign Minister on his first visit to India. Both sides reaffirmed the close strategic partnership between India and France which has received a further fillip with the closure of the Rafael deal, in fact the French Foreign Minister quipped that the bilateral ties should now move forward with the speed of Rafael. There was a comprehensive review of bilateral relations including defence, where Prime Minister Modi reiterated the call for Make in India in defence. They also discussed cooperation in Civil Nuclear Energy with particular reference to the Jaidapur Nuclear Power Plant and space, where both sides acknowledge the significant potential for win-win partnerships given India's demonstrated capabilities for low-cost launches.
On economic cooperation, the French Foreign Minister said that French companies have invested more than € 20 million in India. He mentioned companies such as Renault and said he was looking forward to his participation in Vibrant Gujarat which would provide further opportunities for French companies to invest in India. In this context, he looked forward to early discussions on a revised Bilateral Investment Protection Agreement with the EU. As you know because France is a member of the EU, the BIPA arrangement will be discussed with the EU as a whole and not with individual countries.
The two leaders also discussed French participation in sustainable development for Indian cities, where more than 60 French companies are working in sectors such as Transport, Water and Waste management. The French Foreign Minister appreciated India's ratification of the Paris COP21 Agreement which he said had sent a very strong signal of India's commitment to combating Climate Change. He said, the French government was looking forward to working with India on the path-breaking initiative of Prime Minister Modi, to have an International Solar Alliance.
The French Foreign Minister reiterated French support for India's membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group as well as candidature as a permanent member in a reformed and expanded UN Security Council. There was considerable discussion between the two sides on international terrorism. As you know both India and France have been victims of terrorism, in this context both sides also reiterated the need for early finalization of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism.
So this then was the readout of meeting with the French Foreign Minister. I think this gives you a broad idea of the kind of discussion the Prime Minister held on the sidelines of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas. And now to tell you in much more greater detail on what actually happened at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas including the Prime Minister's speech today, I will turn to Secretary (OIA) Shri Dnyaneshwar Mulay.
Secretary (OIA & CPV), Shri Dnyaneshwar Mulay:Namaste and good afternoon to all of you. I'm sure you have been going around since there are no restricted sessions here, everything is open to your eyes and to your ears. You have had the inaugural in the morning, where two main features were the address of our Chief Guest Mr. Antonio Costa, the Prime Minister of Portugal and subsequently the address of Hon'ble Prime Minister Modi.
Hon'ble Prime Minister of Portugal started on a very nostalgic note about his father's childhood in Goa. He also related to his own desire now to go and meet the places where his father had spent his childhood. He also described, fondly his father's role in building the India-Portugal relationship and subsequently he expressed his strong desire to take this to a new level of relationship. While we did invite him to see if the overall engagement can grow, he also is equally keen that from our side too, he welcomed people from India and he used the words 'open arms.'
The general tone of his speech was full of warmth, affection and a strong desire to not only nurture this bond, but also to talk openly about it in front of the world and to prove his point, he took out his PIO/OCI card and displayed it a as a mark of his unhesitating admission of his Indian roots. This is to me a very significant. In a way we Indians and diaspora are very lucky because perhaps we are the only diaspora which at any given point of time has at least one or two or three Heads of Government or Heads of State. And this is something that we need to cherish and bring back home the point that Indians are actually doing a very good job outside and we therefore need to build these bridges as strong as possible.
The second most important aspect, obviously along with other speeches I would say, was the address of Hon'ble Prime Minister. His as you know was a unique speech in a sense because he used Hindi and English both. So linguistically I personally thought that it was a very thoughtful way of presentation because there are certain ways you connect in your own language to the diaspora, you know it's a sentimental, emotional, cultural connect linguistically and then the use of English, wherever you wanted to convey a message. Even though we have been, in our own ways, provided for translations, he used English as a way to communicate to the larger world, India's message as to where we stand vis-a-vis our relations with the diaspora.
The expression that he used, to me is a kind of milestone in the way we look at our own diaspora. He has brought diaspora engagement as a subject that was on the periphery of diplomacy, to describing it as a key area of priority of our approach to the foreign policy. This is, I would say, a substantial upgradation and description of our engagement with the diaspora. He set the tone in his very own and unique style and I would say that the first key line to be remembered is, 'Passport ka color nahi dekhte, hum khoon ka rishta dekhte hain.' In my view this is an important message. Indian, wherever he is, whichever country he might be, whether he has our citizenship or not, whether he belongs to a particular religion or not, we will stand for them, we will support them, will help them and we would built new ways of engagement.
The other key message that he gave and I believe it is because our PM has this dream that India should become the capital of quality manpower export and in that sense he values the Gulf workers who are contributing over US$ 70 billion to India's exchequer every year. We have a slogan under the OIA banner, which is 'Surakshit jayen, prashikshit jayen.' Hon'ble Prime Minister added one more dimension to that by saying 'Vishwas ke saath jayen.' In his subsequent narration he elaborated what it means.
Vishwas ke saath jayen ka arth ye hai ki aap kahin bhi jayen, aap ye yaad rakhiye ki aap Bharat ke naagrik hain aur Bharat aapka saath dega, Bharat aapki care karega, Bharat aapki duvidha mein aapki madad karega, is vishwas ke saath jaiye.
Because it is very important that we give this confidence, particularly to the working class which goes there to earn their livelihood, I think in my view, this is a very very important message. He obviously went through the entire gamut of our existing schemes, whether it was our portals like e-migrate which is designed to regulate and to encourage legal migration in a healthy manner. He also mentioned about the Madad portal of MEA which handles grievances and this is one portal which handles one of the largest number of grievances amongst all Indian Government portals and the performance in terms of redressal of these grievances has been really very outstanding. So Hon'ble Prime Minister mentioned about that also.
He announced that the conversion date of PIO cards into OCI cards is extended by six months from December 31, 2016 to 30 June, 2017, so this will give relief. Hon'ble Prime Minister did mention that this is a free facility that is available till June 30, 2017. He also announced the decision that will be special counters at the major airports to welcome the PIOs and NRIs. This is a small but significant step in giving a feeling to the overseas Indian community which he described rightly in the first two or three sentences as, 'Three million people with footprints all over the world.'
He also announced the S&T department's new scheme to encourage adjunct faculty, particularly in the technical and scientific fields who can come here and stay here on good terms. Good terms meaning basically competitive terms, you know people when they come here, they should be that not only we have acknowledged them but we also given the due respect and honour through proper remuneration and therefore many more people will be able to join in this particular scheme.
He made a very important announcement regarding the facility that the Mauritian diaspora has been requesting along with other older diaspora. There have been issues regarding those who are fourth generation onwards of the people of Indian descent. When we announced the scheme to convert PIO cards to OCI cards, there are certain gaps that remained which defeated the original purpose of converting the PIO cards into the OCI cards, because the idea was to give similar facilities to both. So the technical glitches had to be addressed and therefore a team was sent and Prime Minister announced that the Mauritian diaspora of subsequent generations, if they fulfill certain documentation requirements, they will all be entitled for the OCI card. This is a major relief and you must have heard the applause at that announcement.
He also informed about the 'Know India' program, of which 160 participants belonging to 4 batches were present. He mentioned in detail about the 'Bharat Ko Janiye' quiz program, which was started last year and attracted about 5000 entries and he expressed the desire that more than 50,000 entries should be there because the audience responded quite enthusiastically.
He also announced that the investments of our overseas Indian community, whether the NRIs or PIOs or the OCI cardholders will be treated on par with the resident investments. This will have to be further elaborated by DIPP in their policy matters, but this is an announcement that was done for the first time.
Overall if you see, the audience enthusiasm and the quality and content of subsequent sessions, in which so far we have had two sessions and the third session of afternoon is going on. The first two sessions, and I explained yesterday how the format has evolved and we realized that this format was wholeheartedly endorsed by the audiences today. There were two sessions that I attended just now. One was under India Development Foundation - How to contribute to India's Development. We've established a trust called India Development Foundation where the charity or philanthropic activities and the philanthropic desires of the overseas Indians are channeled or facilitated to be channeled through the State Governments and other agencies in India.
One of the instant outcomes during this particular session was that two persons got up and one person gave a cheque of 20 lakhs to the India Development Foundation right there itself. And one more commitment to deliver the cheque tomorrow for $ 25,000 was also received. We realized that we need to now promote these schemes because obviously most people while acknowledging that Ministry of External Affairs has done a lot and is trying to do a lot, there was a desire that more needs to be done perhaps by the community, including the overseas organizations to spread the word about the schemes and reforms that have been undertaken by MEA.
In the second session which was on consular services which means passport, visa and other services that we offer to the people in general, not only Indians - but yes since the diaspora is an important component, and this particular forum is for them, there were a lot of questions. A large number of them were addressed, others were taken into account. These were about the delays and what the embassies could do more. One thing was that everybody acknowledged that embassies have been doing a lot like going the extra mile whether it is in the 'Sankat Mochan' or whether it is in the Yemen crisis, Indian Government has gone all out.
There were suggestions as to how to improve the Indian Community Welfare Fund and we assured them that all their suggestions will be examined further and they will be forwarded to appropriate divisions within the MEA or elsewhere or if MHA has to be consulted, the same would also be done.
Overall, I would say that this particular Pravasi Bharatiya Divas seems to be emerging as a major upgradation, as a major break away from the past are PBDs in terms of the outcome oriented approach that we have got, number one. Number two, from bread-and-butter issues to larger policy issues, we are addressing all the issues in the gamut of our relationship with the diaspora. Thank you so much. I'll be happy to take a few questions.
Official Spokesperson, Shri Vikas Swarup: Thank you Secretary for the very comprehensive briefing on all the highlights of the day and the floor is now open for questions.
Question from Economic Times:I just wanted to ask if it would be possible to upload or in some way convey to us a very brief profile and names of the speakers of the panels because the panels are very large and introductions are quite short, I think that would be very useful
Secretary (OIA & CPV), Shri Dnyaneshwar Mulay:Absolutely. I believe this information is already available on our website because as you would have seen we are conducting these sessions in a very transparent manner, I will be happy to share their information. These are not necessarily celebrities, but these are domain experts and we were keen to have domain experts and as vast a geographical spread as possible. Yes, I don't say our list of panelists would be perfect, but we would continue to improve. The 10 sessions that we have had in 2016, is not the end of our sessions. We will continue because we see that this is a very very effective way of engaging the diaspora.
Question from Sunday Guardian:The question that I have is related to the meeting of Prime Minister with the French Foreign Minister, specifically on CCIT. There have been a lot of issues where India has pushed very hard for CCIT. Was there anything concrete or anything positive that came out of this?
Official Spokesperson, Shri Vikas Swarup: Look, CCIT is something that the entire general body of the General Assembly has to approve, so it is not something that you know one country or two countries alone can do it. There have been logjams on the issue of definition of terrorist, who to keep out, the government actions to be inside the purview or outside the purview. So our idea is to build as large a consensus as possible based on the very simple policy of prosecute or extradite. A terrorist is a terrorist is a terrorist. A terrorist attack is a terrorist act.
We don't have to quibble on words whether it is a terrorist act or not. Once that happens all members of the United Nations should have the obligation of either prosecuting that particular terrorist, if the terrorist does not belong to their country or is a foreigner then to deport or extradite that person so that he can face justice. That is the sum total but we are not saying that tomorrow the CCIT is going to be adopted; when Prime Minister has gone to all the Gulf countries, you saw the very strong support that he got from there as well. So this is a task which continues, it's a process which is continuing and we are hopeful that eventually this process will reach a fruitful conclusion.
Question: In countries like Fiji and Guyana, people from fourth generations are unable to get the OCI card due to the lack of evidence. But its not only in these countries, there are people living in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Myanmar who are also facing this kind of problem. Whether the Prime Minister today made an announcement about the countries, will these countries also get the same benefit?
Secretary (OIA & CPV), Shri Dnyaneshwar Mulay:See, this fourth generation fifth generation issue was particularly raised by the older diaspora, but if that issue is there with other countries, this is something that Government of India will certainly take into account. What we expect in the normal course is some kind of a documentation of the problem. If you could ask the people you know, who have this problem, to approach our embassy and request them to send us some kind of a data, what is the magnitude of the problem, why the problem has arisen, why can't we the existing provision itself satisfy the requirements, etc. We are very open to study and I think the PM did not mean to perhaps limit the number, it was not an exhaustive list. It was just in the flow, but he said that on the lines of Mauritius we will examine how we can satisfy other countries.
Question:I just want to know about the role of India Development Foundation and how this money will be utilized and who will monitor the activities for this foundation?
Secretary (OIA & CPV), Shri Dnyaneshwar Mulay:Thank you for this question because I think it's a very important that all of you I will request to write about. This has been a long desire on the part of diaspora members that they want a reliable and accountable channel for doing philanthropic work in India. Somebody wants to build a hospital, somebody wants to build a school room, somebody wants to do philanthropy of $ 50 while somebody wants do philanthropy of $ 5 million. But there are a range of issues about taxation, about how we will use the money, how there won't be any fraud, how it will not be siphoned off, how will we be acknowledged? Once we give the money, will we have any connection with it, how will these things be sustained? So the IDF-OI was a scheme that has been in force for quite a few years, 6 or 7 years, however we recently revamped it because we observed that there wasn't enough response and we studied why the response was not there and we found out that people want a dependable, transparent, efficient, accountable system and something that they can themselves relate with.
So we have now devised a scheme which is, I would say, hundred percent transparent. Number one, IDF-OI is Government of India's registered trust. External Affairs Minister herself is the chair. Imminent persons from all over the world and from India are on the IDF-OI's board. We have first done our homework by going to the States in India, asking them what are the small and medium projects that you would like to propose to overseas Indians. After consulting all the States in India, we have a bouquet of hundred projects which is put on our website. We also got Namami Gange, Swachh Bharat and some other Government of India's flagship projects on the board because these are likely to attract the attention. For example people are attached to Ganga and they would like to do something for it and there after we went back to our missions, to all the overseas Indian communities.
We have not really propagated, we thought first we will put our house in order, start certain things as a pilot project and I'm happy to say that we might be perhaps the only External Affairs Ministry which is contributing to India's development directly. Recently, we have created two toilet complexes, it sounds a small figure, but two toilet complexes, one in Tirupati and other in Vijaywada. Two more are under construction, one not far from the Golden Temple and one in Sikkim.
We have a number of requests that are flowing in. In the past seven years we had not garnered much funds but in the last year or so we are crossing about 3 crore. Again this is not a very big amount but we think it's very significant. If somebody wants to connect with India we must be responsive. We identify a State agency, if experts say we want to do something in Rajasthan in so and so village, we contact the district authorities, sit with them, sign an MoU with them and then appoint an implementing agency and we keep on giving these reports to the donor. Donor, whenever he wants, he can visit the place, he can oversee project and at the end of the project we will have his name written there.For sustainability all IDF-OI money is only spent not on any administrative costs, it is only spent on creating capital assets. That being the case, there is no other way the money can be used. For example, we don't have a provision to pay consultants. Minimum expenditure, maximum output and the structure should be there to be seen.
This is broadly the process, we are very flexible in the sense of handholding, if you don't like this hundred projects please tell us what you want to do and we take it from there and our team is very responsible, we conduct Google Hangouts, we are on twitter, we are on Facebook, we are trying to reach out. This is not a compulsory scheme, people have expressed a desire to connect with India, we have created a facility.
Question from Press Trust of India:Mr. Vikas, you said the French Minister and Prime Minister Modi discussed in particular collaborations in the defence sector a few months after the sale of 36 Rafael fighters to India for about $ 8.4 billion. Can you share a few highlights of the discussion and the second question is - India has become the world's largest weapons importer as it tries to modernize its arsenal, so what are the possibilities for future arms deals with the French Government?
Official Spokesperson, Shri Vikas Swarup: I'm sorry I cannot share the details as everything cannot be discussed in the public domain, but needless to say, in broad terms Prime Minister welcomed the French offer to the build more weapons and platform systems in India under the Make in India banner. That is the overall thing but you know in terms of specifics I don't want to go into that because some discussions have to remain confidential.
Question from Global Governance Group:Today PM had already said in his speech that scenery has changed after becoming the PM, so can you share the information that within the last 31 months how many such brains had just come to India to share their thoughts for the growth and development of the country?
Secretary (OIA & CPV), Shri Dnyaneshwar Mulay:While I do not have the statistics, actually we do not have any mechanism in the MEA but perhaps HRD Ministry and also a S&T Ministry, but now we have recently started a new portal called 'Pratisthit Bharatiya.'
Videshon mei jo Bharatiya rahte hain unmein se pratisthit Bharatiyon ki soochi banana ka kaam humne haath mein le liye hai, to uske tahat shayad bhavishya mein hum pata kar payenge, lekin main ye kahna chaah raha hoon ki Pradhan Mantri Ji ka jo ravaiyaa raha hai, woh hai Bharat mein hum is tarah ka mahoul banayen ki adhik se adhik log aayen. Kisi ek ya do scheme ke baare mein nahin hai ye. Hum aisa paryavaran yahan banayen ki videsh mein jo Bharatiya hain, who vinivesh ke liye, nivesh ke liye, paryatan ke liye, manoranjan ke liye, siksha ke liye, aarogya suvidha ke liye sab cheezon ke liye yaha aayen. Emotional connect ko maintain karein aur badhayen, cultural connect ko badhayen. Ye kis tarah se ho sakta hai toh humne passport reform kiye, humne visa mein reforms kiye.
We have seen a marked difference in the number of people who are utilizing the e-tourist visa facility. This is a sea-change from the approach of the past that people will go the consulate or embassy, sometimes face difficulties, either genuine or otherwise, this is all now a matter of past. People who want to have long term visas they can go to the embassies, rest all like who want to go just three days later, just go fill in the form, very few entry fields are there and you come. This is creating an atmosphere of welcome and that I think we have been able to do that including the strengthening of our own schemes and our engagement. I would call this as redefinition of our engagement and creating an atmosphere of overall welcome and I think we have succeeded in that.
Question from Punch Magazine:Hamare Pradhan Mantri Ji ne aaj ye bola tha ki jo videshon mein fas jaate hain, jo videsh mein achha kamane ki khoj mein jaate hain aur aksar Videsh Mantralya ke paas ye samachar aate hain aur unko rescue karna padta hai. Toh Yahan ke jo farzi aur galat agents hain, jo yahan se unko le jaate hain, toh ismein abhi tak roktham kyon nahi ho pa rahi hai? Ya to Videsh Mantralay ka samanvay Rajya Sarkaron ki agenciyon se nahi ho paa raha hai jis se log Saudi ya Gulf deshon mein ja kar fas jaate hain. Doosra online voting ke liye baat thi, to uski pragati report MEA ke pass hai ya nahi hai? Yadi nahi hai toh kya ye ummeed ki ja sakti hai ki 2019 se pehle online voting ka adhikar pravasiyon ko mil sakta hai?
Secretary (OIA & CPV), Shri Dnyaneshwar Mulay:Aisa hai ki ismein badi saari guthhiyan hain aur arth karan bhi hota hai. Unregistered agents hain, brokers hain, sub-agents hain aur State Government ki Law & Order agencies hain. Videsh Mantralay ka jurisdiction alag hai lekin hamari Videsh Mantri Ji ne pro-actively kai saare rajyon ki law enforcement agencies aur wahan ke NRI mantri ya commissioneron ke saath kai saari meeting ki hain.
At a Practical level and functional level, our Jt. Secretary (PGE) regularly visits various states and tries to tell them what are the things that are happening. We also are encouraging the States to take more responsibility in law enforcement because without their cooperation this cannot improve substantially. So we building those bridges. We are also creating this program campaign called 'Prasikshit Jayen Surakshik Jayen.'
Prandhan MantriJi ne usko aur aage badhakar 'Vishwas ke saath jaayen' bhi usmein jod diya hai. Hamare campaign ka sutra yahi hai, aur isko bhi kaafi achha pratisaad mil raha hai. Logon mein ye jaagriti karna aavashyak hai ki aap ja sakte ho lekin jaate samay aap ke pass koi na koi skill hona chahiye, jaankaari honi chahiye, embassies aur consulate ke number hone chahiye aur emergency mein kya kya kar sakte hain, iski bhi jaankaari honi chahiye. Ye holistic effort hamari taraf se jaari hai aur ye prayas aage bhi jaari rahega.
Online voting hamare kaarya-kshetra mein nahi hai, ye Election Commission ki baat hai aur maine kal hi iska uttar diya tha. Jo mujhe jaankaari mili hai woh ye hai ki Election Commission ne apne prastaav Bharat Sarkar ko bheje hain aur woh Bharat Sarkar ke vicharadheen hain. Unhone ye bhi prastave diya hai ki koi prakriya bana kar is par amal kiya jaye, is tarah ka prastaav unhone rakha hai.
Question from New Indian Express:Has the Indian diaspora from PoK has applied for this PBD and have they been granted permission or not?
Official Spokesperson, Shri Vikas Swarup: I think he has addressed this question earlier also.
Question from Connected to India:The question is a follow up question that you just talked about. Prime Minister Narendra Modi talked about 'Surakshit Jayen Prasikshi Jayen' he talked about developing soft skills which is quite important in today's world for everybody. How is Government planning to implement this program, as in how would you rope-in agencies who would teach and polish these aspiring people and what are the logistics as in, people involved in house-keeping and similar jobs, we don't expect them to pay for such program. So what are the logistics and how do you plan to implement this?
Secretary (OIA & CPV), Shri Dnyaneshwar Mulay:External Affairs Ministry has devised something which is called Pre-departure Orientation Program. We have created the modules and handed them over to the Ministry of Skills Development and Employment and we are working to start on it very soon. We have identified centers all over India where this program can be implemented. Prime Minister has also announced the Pravasi Kaushal Vikas Yojna which is the same, but we call it Pre-departure Orientation Program.
Official Spokesperson, Shri Vikas Swarup: We have been regularly emphasizing that please only go through the registered agents. The e-migrate portal that we have in fact is designed only for registered agents, but the problem is people just go through un-registered agents. So many fake cases have come to our notice where the person has gotten into trouble and later on we discover that that particular lady or that particular man went through an unregistered agent without informing the embassy. Embassy had no record of them and then they get into trouble. This is demand supply situation also unfortunately.
Question from The Week Magazine:Today PM mentioned about this Pravasi Kaushal Yojna and we are also talking about Skill India and Make in India. So are we not focused on employment generation because I think the whole focus in this Kaushal yojna is to impart soft skills and in a way promoting these youth to go abroad and work, become a global labour market. So on one hand we are talking about India aspiring to be a super power and on the other we are aspiring to be a global labour market too, so isn't it ironical?
Secretary (OIA & CPV), Shri Dnyaneshwar Mulay:Nothing is ironical, this world is full of contradictions. But I want to say that employment generation is not the mandate of External Affairs Ministry. What we are looking here and our limited purpose is to stop exploitation. If we can reduce the abuse of our people, we can raise the wage levels, we can raise the skills, because if we raise the skills we raise the wage levels and we also get sustainability. Our people get respect abroad also if they are skilled, so this is an effort in that direction.
Our Skills Development Ministry and other ministries like Industry and Commerce are separately looking into that. We are not really in the employment generation segment, that is not our mandate, but yes we are very very concerned about our labour.
Question:Today the Prime Minister asked the Yuva Pravasi Bharatiya to be in touch with India, but today the practical problem is that the overseas youth do not understand or have forgotten the mother land…..
Official Spokesperson, Shri Vikas Swarup: We have got the 'Know India' program, Bharat Ko Janiye and things like that but as far as teaching native language is concerned, I don't know whether there is a separate program for this.
Secretary (OIA & CPV), Shri Dnyaneshwar Mulay:Indian languages are being taught abroad now. Worldwide increasingly universities are adding India departments, Indian language departments, Indian Economy sections to their university, it's a growing trend worldwide and of course Government of India is creating chairs for example.
Official Spokesperson, Shri Vikas Swarup: Plus online platforms are available for everything you know. You want to learn Tamil, Telugu, Odiya, Kannada, you name it online platforms are now available. What I mean to say that the era of spoon feeding is really not needed now. You have enough resources and facilities available for people to learn on their own. If those kinds of facilities, for instance, there may not be, Tamil teachers in a place where the diaspora is very limited, then the only recourse you have is sending a Tamil teacher from India will be too cost prohibitive also, for 5 people you cannot send but there is the Internet and online learning tools are always available.
We now have come to the close of this press briefing. Thank you all.
(Concludes)
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