AIR Spotlight: Pravasi Bharatiya Divas

AIR Spotlight is an insightful program featured daily on the All India Radio News on air. In this program, many eminent panellists discuss issues of importance which can be quite helpful in IAS exam preparation.

This article is about the discussion on Pravasi Bharatiya Divas.

Participants: 

1. Skand Ranjan Payal, Former Diplomat
2. V. Ravi Kumar, AIR Correspondent

Context: Prime Minister has inaugurated the 17th edition of Pravasi Bhartiya Divas in Indore, Madhya Pradesh.

Details: 

What is Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD)? 

• In January  2002, a High-Level Committee on Indian Diaspora, headed by jurist and Parliamentarian LM Singhvi recommended that the government must renew and strengthen linkages of overseas Indians to their place of origin, and with each other.
• The committee recommended that a Pravasi Bharatiya Bhavan should be set up to emerge as the focal point for networking between India and its overseas Indian community.
• January 9th is celebrated as the day of Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, to commemorate Mahatma Gandhi’s return to India from South Africa in 1915.
• Since 2015, the centenary year of Gandhi’s return, the format was revised for the meeting to be held once every two years.
• This year’s theme is “Diaspora: Reliable partners for India’s progress in Amrit Kaal”.
• The Chief Guest of the event – the President of Guyana, Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali.
• India has one of the largest diaspora communities accounting to nearly 20 million. 
• Over 3,500 diaspora members from nearly 70 different countries have registered for the PBD Convention, according to its press release.

The Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award

• It is the highest honour conferred on a Non-Resident Indian, a Person of Indian Origin; or an organisation or institution established and run by them.
• The award is to commemorate the contribution of the Indian diaspora to create a better understanding of India abroad, support India’s causes and work for the welfare of the local Indian community.

The PBD Convention will have five thematic plenary sessions-

• First Plenary on ‘Role of Diaspora Youth in Innovations and New Technologies’.
• Second Plenary on ‘Role of Indian Diaspora in promoting Indian Healthcare Ecosystem in Amrit Kaal: Vision @2047’.
• Third Plenary on ‘Leveraging the soft power of India – Goodwill through craft, cuisine & creativity’.
• Fourth Plenary on ‘Enabling global mobility of Indian workforce – Role of Indian Diaspora’.
• Fifth Plenary on ‘Harnessing the potential of diaspora entrepreneurs towards an inclusive approach to nation building. 

Importance of the diaspora: 

• Pravasi Bharatiya is one of the most important sources of inflow of remittances in India. India is one of the largest remittance-receiving countries in the world. 
• Pravasi Bharatiya is the major source of investment in the country, which results in the generation of jobs and infrastructure.
• They play a very important role in developing and enhancing the soft power of the country at the international level. 
• They play an important role in influencing the policies of the migrating country in favour of India by acting as a  pressure groups. 
• They also play an important role in the transfer of technology from different countries to India.

Platforms like the Pravasi Bharatiya meetings provide a forum to interconnect Indian people across the world and thus enable them to make contributions towards India’s growth. Therefore, regular interaction with these people would be in India’s interest as well as in the interest of the people. 

Read previous AIR Spotlight articles in the link.

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