UAE NRI businessman wants Mini Pravasi Bharati Divas be held in Dubai

Plans to change the format of Pravasi Bharathiya Divas (PBD), an annual gathering of Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) for 13 years, to a bi-annual event needs serious discussions with representatives of the overseas Indian community members, an NRI businessman and winner of Pravasi Bharatiya Award said.

Speaking to the media in UAE, Dubai-based Dr Azad Moopen, founder of Aster DM Healthcare, said the “unexpected announcement” by Sushama Swaraj, Indian Minister of External Affairs and Overseas Indian Affairs, to change the annual event into a biannual event, “requires deeper interaction with the NRIs before being put into practice.”

Last week, Swaraj announced that in January 2016, a much scaled-down PBD will be held with the participation of just 150 specially invited foreign delegates.

“The invited diaspora guests will be experts who would attend various sessions to brainstorm on issues, including the problem of the Indian diaspora in the Gulf, on the government's flagship programmes such as Make in India, Skill India, Digital India, and problems that Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) face,” the Minister announced in New Delhi.

The Indian government wants more meaningful engagements and interactions in the Pravasi Bharathi Divas, she said.

However, Moopen believes that with this move, millions of regular NRIs will lose a venue to air their grievances with the Indian Government.

“Pravasi Bharathiya Divas in the last many years has been one occasion where NRIs could meet and vent their problems. The frequency has been reduced to once in two years and the format has been changed to participation by invitation. The Indian government should have given opportunities for those who want to express opinion to do so and set up follow-up committees for making sure that the suggestions are evaluated and adopted,” Dr Moopen, a regular participant in the event, said.

“There has been a demand to conduct the regional PBD in one of the GCC countries, and we were hoping that this will happen in Dubai,” Dr Moopen said.

The businessman, who features at No. 81 on the Forbes’ Indian billionaires rankings, said many other NRIs in the UAE shared his views, especially regarding addressing some long-pending requests from the NRI community – voting rights for overseas Indians, high airfare and other hardships facing the travelling overseas Indian community, higher education of NRI children.

He said the NRI community is disappointed that a decision to form NRI Universities is not seriously taken up by the government.

He added that NRIs above the age of 60 need urgent insurance cover upon their return to India. “Many of them fall into a debt trap once they return to India because of medical needs. A properly structured insurance programme to address by paying for the policy every year while they work will be a great help for the NRIs,” he said.