INTRODUCTION:

Rendezvous:

Humans from ancient times have the propensity to move from one place to another for the sustenance of life and livelihood. Migration is basically movement of people from one place to another for a period of six months or more.

Migration may be seasonal, permanent and may take place due to depletion of resources, natural disasters and even for enhancing the likelihood to access better opportunities of livlihood and growth. As people grouped into clans for having a better social existence and safety, the competition between various clans for acquiring land and other resources also increased. Clans increased in size, occupied territories to form their kingdoms which slowly but steadily gave birth to dynasties. History has laid down evidence about the richness of India. The wealth and richness of India attracted many foreign invaders. The Britishers like earlier invaders not only ruled India, but looted its wealth and also used Indians as indentured labourers and transported people to Great Britain for their white employers. The Britishers left India in 1947, dividing in into two sovereign countries as India and Pakistan. Outward migration from India started much before the Britishers reigned in India, though sporadic and mainly for trade. In The Concise Oxford Dictionary the term migration is explained as the "movements from one place to another", i.e., from one country to another country (1977:690), whereas the term immigration means, "coming as permanent resident into a foreign country" (op cit. 537). The term emigration expresses, "leaving one country to settle in another" (op cit. 338). From the perspective of Social Sciences, people living in communities choose migration as a coping mechanism to handle internal and external problems (Kasdan,1970: 1). This becomes a reason for the people to move out from their country to another. The stimulus for migration is "expulsion" and "attraction", expulsion resulting always from deprivation and socio-economic discrimination (Haddan: 1912). Since the immigration countries are wealthy nations with well established social system where dignity of an individual gets due attention.

DEFINITION OF DIASPORA:

The word “diaspora” is deﬁned, at its simplest, as the dispersal of people from their original homeland (Butler, 2001). The word Diaspora originated from the Greek word “dia” and “spero,” meaning over and scattering (Butler, 2001; Brinkerhoff, 2007; Gautam, 2013; Kiamba, 2014). Thus, the word “diaspora” originates from a Greek word that reﬂects the sense of diffusion or distribution. Movement of people also stretched the edges of the Jewish diaspora, followed by the Armenian diaspora, Chinese diaspora, African diaspora and Indian diaspora.

OBJECTIVE:

· The research endeavours to understand the history of Indian immigration ,in order to assess the present status of the diaspora in the host regions.

· The study aims to understand the Indian diaspora within the realms of it’s prospects, contribution in home and host countries and the challenges it faces.

· The study further aims to understand the Indian government’s role in boosting engagement with the diaspora

· The study explores the role of diaspora as a soft power in the globalization era and a thread in binding better relationship between India and their host nations.

METHODOLOGY:

The research is conducted using the secondary data source on migration, economics, Indian diaspora. The existing literature, reports by United Nations, World bank, Migration policy Institute, MEA, Government of India and immigrant reports of other nations are mainly used. Other publications and reports of government and private entities available in the public domain have provided valuable input.

History of Indian immigration (Diaspora):

Pre-colonial era:

Narashiman et al (2018) have laid an argument in their study that people from the Indus valley lived in Central Asia during the Bronze Age. Discovery of Indus valley seal gave fuel to his argument that people from the Indus valley had migrated for trade and settled down in the BMAC settlements. The Indian business diaspora residing Central Asia and Arabia have their migration journey traced to the mid 16^th century, at the same time when mughals were ruling in India. Indian merchants also travelled to Russia and settled during the 17^th and 18^th century. Hindu, Muslim and Sikh traders migrated to Persia, Kandahar and Afghanistan for trading. They traded spices, textiles and precious metals mainly. A large size of migration took place to South East Asia. History has some evidence which indicates that most likely the first wave of migration to south East Asia was when Emperor Ashoka invaded Kalinga. This was followed by Indian merchants engaging in trade with the South Asians. Large number of people belonging to the upper caste Brahmin community also moved to South Asia.This resulted in the establishment of the Indianised kingdoms in the South East Asia. The Chola rulers invaded Sumatra and Malay Peninsula to extend their kingdoms. The influence of Indian culture is very obvious in south eastern countries and people from the southern parts of India form a very prominent group in those countries.

European colonial age:

Abolition of slavery led to acute shortage of manpower for the colonial powers such as Britain, France, Netherlands, and Portugal. To meet the manpower demand for working in the sugarcane plantation and rubber plantation, to build railway tracks and also to supply domestic workers for the white people, the British established an organized system of temporary labour migration from the Indian subcontinent, known as indentured labour. Scarcity and poverty forced Indians to enroll as indentured labour.

With a two pronged objective to handle problems of labour shortage and optimum utilization of the available resources, Britain from 1834, began transporting Indian labourers to Mauritius. Following suit, this practice was adopted by other colonial powers like Netherlands and France. By 1878, Indians were working in Guyana, Trinidad, Natal (South Africa), Suriname, and Fiji. Mostly Bhojpuri and Awadhi speaking people from Central and Northern India went as indentured workers. French occupied portions of southern India during their reign. The trace of which is still evident in small French population residing in Pondicherry today. Hence it was obvious that the large chunk of indentured Indian labourers exported to work in the French colonies were Tamils.

The labourers were alien to the places they were transported, away from their homes, communities and country. They were completely at the mercy of their colonial masters. It was a disguised form of slavery. The labourers lived in abysmally miserable conditions ; in filthy and dingy overly packed barracks, working beyond stretchable limits, punished brutally for minor mistakes.

The indenture system was abolished in 1916. By that time, more than 1.5 million Indians had been shipped to colonies in the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, and Oceania, according to estimates by the historian Brij V. Lal.

Approximately during the same period, the managers of tea, coffee, and rubber plantations in Sri Lanka, Malaya (part of present-day Malaysia), and Burma lured Indian headmen, known as kangani or maistry, to negotiate with villagers and ferry them to work in the plantations.

Thus the system is commonly referred to as the ‘Kangani’ system in Sri Lanka and Malaya, and the ‘Maistry’ system for Burma. Indian workers in these countries maintained good relation with their relatives back home.

During the British Raj, educated Indians of Bengali and Parsi communities migrated to Britain and subsequently settled there. Between 1820 and 1900, there was sparse movement of Indians to the United States, with only 700 people migrating. From 1900 to 1930, the number sprung to 8,700; the majority of whom were not well educated Punjabi Sikhs who worked as farm labourers in California. Legislations passed in America in 1917 and 1924 prohibited immigration from South or South East Asia

Indians first immigrated to Canada in the mid 19^th century. The early Indo-Canadian comprised of Sikhs who were part of a Sikh regiment of the British Indian army and had visited London for participating in a parade to celebrate Queen Victoria’s golden jubilee in 1897. On their route back home to India, they stopped in Canada in British Columbia. They came back home, but many of them returned back to Canada for better economic opportunities. In subsequent years many members of the Sikh community followed. However during the imperial rule, the early Indian immigrants faced resistance from the white Canadians, who feared competition from the Indians for jobs and livelihood.

A weird and restrictive immigration policy required any person travelling to Canada to undertake a continuous journey from one's home country to Canada without any stoppage in any other country. This obviously paused migration of Indians from India to Canada as no direct means of transportation was available since migration was mainly through ships.

1930 onwards British administration restricted issue of passport to Indians as the British government was of the opinion that uneducated or poor Indians should be prevented from travelling to Britain, in order to protect the country from taking the burden of poor Indians.

Post Independence Immigration:

In the first decades after independence, unskilled workers (mostly male Punjabi Sikhs) migrated from India to the United Kingdom. Young educated Indians aiming for higher education , professional careers and a better life also thronged to UK. Such influx of Indians to Britain resulted from primarily three main reasons. Firstly, there was a demand for low-skilled labour in UK; Secondly, postcolonial ties between UK and it’s past colonies and thirdly, United Kingdom's commonwealth immigration policy, which gave franchise to any citizen of a Commonwealth country to live, work, vote, and hold public office in the United Kingdom.

Prior to the British Commonwealth Immigration Acts of 1962 and 1968, Indian nationals as citizens of Common wealth country had unrestricted preveilege to enter United Kingdom. There was easy migration till the late 1960s and many Indians settled in UK for a prospective future. The cities where majority Indians flocked were London, Leicester and Birmingham.

The Indian passport Act was passed in 1967. Even though the Act emphasized on a citizen’s right to travel , yet the formalities of issuance of passport greatly tilted on the discrertion of the Government of India to be sure that issuance of passport to any individual does not conflict with the interest of the country.

Post independence migration of Indians was mainly to western countries , having condusive conditions for growth. By the mid 1960s, majority of Indians travelling to UK were dependents. Dependents made up 75% of the immigrants in 1965 and 80% in 1966. Ceri Peach and S.W.C.Winchester , both social scientists estimated that by 1961, ethnic Indian community in UK was around 51,000.

Prior to 1965, India had very small size of migrants in US due to conservative immigration laws passed by the US Congress during World War I , which continued till the mid 60s. Between 1965 to 1990, there was a rush of Indian immigrants to US. Such a response was stimulated by a series of legislative changes that led to removal of national origin quotas by the enactment of The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, introduction of temporary skilled worker programmes and created employment based permanent visas.

Secondary migration of Ethnic Indians from Suriname took place before Suriname’s Independence , mainly to Netherlands and other European countries. Apprehension regarding loss of Dutch citizenship after Suriname’s independence and possible domination by Creole led to such an out flux.

The oil boom in 1970s, catalyzed migration from India to the Gulf countries. Oil boom led to massive and continuous industrialization, modernization and development in the gulf countries. This in turn increased the demand for semiskilled, unskilled and professional workers .High unemployment in India and opportunity for unskilled and semi skilled labour led to rush of many poorly educated Indians to Gulf countries. People mostly from South India have worked in the gulf countries on temporary migration schemes. The southern states of Tamil Nadu, Kerela, Andhra Pradesh also have a sizeable muslim population, many of whom were not well educated. Hence migration to gulf countries seemed alluring to them , firstly due to the nature of work required and secondly due to religious affiliation.

In the globalization and liberalization era from 1990 onwards:

There has been a paradigm change in Indian economy since the new economic strategy of Liberalization was put into effect since 1991. The opening up of the Indian economy has been reflected in the relaxation of rules, regulations and laws that created barriers for foreign direct investment to flow into India and cross border trade between India and other countries.The new economic policy cleared hurdles for the foreign MNCs to carry out their operations in India as well as made it relatively smoother for Indian MNCs to carry out their transactions in foreign lands. Deregulation in export and import laws, labour laws, taxation laws, accounting regulation, and many other created condusive atmosphere for free flow of trade, technology, knowledge and manpower. Hence there has been a rise of foreign nationals coming to India as well as an increasing trend of Indians migrating abroad for employment, education, trade, cultural exchanges.

Since mid 1990s there has been an increase in trend of Indian immigration to European and Oceania countries like Germany, Italy, Belgium, Sweden, France, Australia and New Zealand etc

The recent status of Indian diaspora:

According to the Global Migration Report, 2020, India is the largest country of origin of International migrants with 17.5 million strong diaspora across the world. It is around 6.4 % of the total global migrant population. Area wise profile of the Indian diaspora is rooted in the history of migration to that destination country and the economic, political and social environment that gives opportunity for reliable dispensation to exist and thrive.

The following table shows the countries ranked according to the number overseas Indians present by 2018:

Rank	Country	NRI	PIO	OI
1	USA	1,280,000	3,180,000	4,460,000
2	UAE	3,100,000	4,586	3,104,586
3	Malayasia	227,950	2,760,000	2,987,950
4	Saudi Arabia	2,812,408	2,160	2,814,568
5	Myanmar	8,991	2,000,000	2,008,991
6	UK	325,000	1,500,000	1,825,000
7	Sri LAnka	14,000	1,600,000	1,614,000
8	South Africa	60,000	1,500,000	1,560,000
9	Canada	184,320	831,865	1,016,185
10	Kuwait	928,421	1,482	929,903
11	Mauritius	10,500	884,000	894,500
12	Qatar	691,539	500	692,039
13	Oman	688,226	919	689,145
14	Singapore	350,000	300,000	650,000
15	Nepal	600,000	0	600,000
16	Trinidad and Tobago	1,800	555,000	55,800
17	Australia	241,000	255,000	496,000
18	Bahrain	312,918	3,257	316,175
19	Fiji	1400	313,798	315,198
20	Guyana	300	297,493	297,793

Source: Ministry of External affairs, GOI, 2018 data

Indian diaspora in North America:

According to the data released by Census Bureau’s 2018 American Community Survey, the number of Indians in US were 17.8 lakh in 2010, which rose to 26.5 lakh by 2018- a jump of 49 %. Many of them enter US for higher education as International students or through H1B visa for employment in high skill and knowledge based jobs, and often stay back as permanent residents. Most of the India immigrants belong to middle class families, so a passport to US , implies dedicating time and energy for disciplined and hard work in order to reap the benefits that the developed nation provides, which would help them to lead a higher standard of living and fulfilling the requirements of part of their families left back in India. The cultural, social unpredictability that they encounter and the high standard of work performance that organizations in US expect , could possibly be dealt by dedicated learning, acquiring higher and refined skills, performing with zest to ensure survival, safety and sustainable self accomplishment. In other words, in their quest for adaptability in the American ecosystem, the Indian immigrants endeavour to equip themselves with adequate knowledge, skills and also get in hand reliable and credible careers to pursue. The Indian immigrants have better dispensation to be employed in jobs requiring high intellectual, cognitive and creative intelligence abilities like management, business, science and arts occupation at 73% compared to 31 % of overall foreign born population and 38 % of native born population. (www.migration policy.org)

The H-1B visas allow US firms to hire foreign workers with at least a bachelor’s degree to work in specality occupations that require technical and special knowledge and skills (eg: IT, scientists, engineers) and a limited numbers are issued. According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, from 1986 to 2005, the annual total influx of Indian immigrants more than tripled from 27,000 to 85,000, while the share in total immigration flows rose from 4.4 to 7.4 percent. Indian citizens accounted for 5.7 percent of all persons obtaining lawful permanent resident status in 2008. Indians comprised of the second largest group of International students in the United States. In 2011 -2015, more than half of Indian immigrants were residing in five states; California (20 percent), New Jersey (11 percent), Texas (9percent), New York and Illinois (7 percent each) (www.migration policy.com)

Economist B. Lindsay Lowell observed that the number of Indian H-1B visa holders grew fivefold between 1989 and 1999 and peaked in 2001 with 160,000 issuances. In that year, 82 percent of all computer-related H-1B visas were given to Indians and 85 percent of all Indian H-1B beneficiaries were counted as computer related.

In 2007, India received one-third or 158,000 of all H-1B visas (including new visas and renewals.India's domination of computer-trained temporary workers is mainly attributed to the large supply pool in India and to the fact that the IT professionals who travelled to US and worked successfully earlier had created the positive perception of India’s IT talent pool and in general the discipline of an educated middle class Indian.

In the past few decades, several hundred thousands of engineers, doctors, IT professionals, scientists, executives have moved to US. The median household income of Indian Americans in 2015 was $107,000 compared to $51,000 for overall migrants and $56,000 for native born American household. The Indian immigrants in US are a successful group. They are highly educated, engaged in knowledge based and skilful occupations draw high income, enjoy a higher standard of living in comparison to the immigrants from other countries as well as Native Americans. In 2015, 77% of India adults (ages 25 and above) had a bachelor’s degree or higher compared to 29% of all immigrants and 31 % of native born adults. Among college educated Indians, about half had still higher degrees. In 2016, Indians were the top recipients of H-1B visas, accounting for 74% of the total 345,000 petitions.

2006 census laid evidence on the number of foreign born Indians in Canada to be 443,690 or 7.2 percent of all immigrants. According to Statistics in Canada, one-quarter of adult ethnic Indians were university graduates in 2001,which was a better proportion than the overall population. Also, 8 percent of all workers of Indian origin were employed in the natural and applied sciences compared with 6 percent of the total workforce.13% of Indians were engaged in manufacturing industry and the average income of of Indo-canadians was about 10 percent less than the national average.

In 2016, there were 1.4 million Indo-Canadians, constituting around 4% of the population. There has been a speedy increase in Indian immigrants to Canada in the past four years. There has been a jump of + 105% in the rate of Indians admitted as permanent citizens in Canada from 39,705 in 2016 to 80,685. According to Canadian Bureau for International education, the number of Indian International students in Canada in 2019 was 172,265, which is +127% increases from 76,075 in 2016.This astounding increase in the influx of Indian immigrants to Canada is due to the following reasons:

The restrictive measures adopted by the Trump administration in US for giving and renewing H-1B visas. This in turn has led to young Indian tech personnel to divert from US to Canada as a destination place for working. Many Indian and US technology companies have penetrated into Canada as they find supportive policies and business environment. This is drawing young Indians to Canada. The Canadian government has focussed on Smoothening the process of granting work permit to technology professionals and provides a transparent and easy path to occupying permanent residency. The Canadian government has devised a ‘Global Skills strategy’ for attracting high skilled global talents. The authorities approve many applications for high skilled professionals within two weeks from the date of application. Indians find Canada’s point based selection system to be alluring as it places high value on youth, higher education and high skilled work experience. Most highly educated and technically skilled Indians have an added advantage than their counterparts from other countries in possessing English language proficiency, which is a basic requirement to qualify for permanent residency in Canada. Canada is taking proactive measures to tackle the challenges of labour shortage and an aging labour force by encouraging legal immigration to Canada.

Around 45 % of the Indo-canadians hold university degrees in comparison to the 26% for the overall population. The employment levels of the Indo-Canadians are higher than the overall population. Around 75% of the Indo-canadians works as highly educated and skilled professionals, businessmen or entrepreneurs. Almost 20% of all high income Indo-Canadians in the past decade have encompassed wealth through entrepreneurship in mostly domains such as mining, software, technology, health care, real estate and hotel industries.

The majority of Indo-Canadian are Sikhs (35%). Yet people from other religions like, hindus (28%), Christian (16%)s and Indian muslims (17%) are also present. Places of worship of all religions like Gurudwaras, temples, Mosques and Churches are found in Canada.

Indo-Canadian culture is closely linked to each Indian group’s religious, regional, linguistic, ethnic background. It is a matter of pride that the youth or the second generations Indo-canadians follow both the western and the Indian culture. Canada being a country which gives freedom to practice multiculturalism has helped the Indo-Canadians in preserving their identity. The languages spoken by indo Canadians depend on their regional roots in India. Hence there people speaking Punjabi, Telegu, Tamil, Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Malayalam etc. Though Indo Canadians are dispersed throughout Canada, yet there are few places which have high concentration of Indo-Canadians like Toronto city in Ontario province, Vancouver in British Columbia region, Abbotsford in British Columbia, Surrey, Burnaby etc.

Indian diaspora in the middle-east:

The India-Gulf region is the second largest migration corridor in the world. Indians constitute almost 30% of the expatriates in the Gulf (www.mea.edu) Majority of Indian migrants were from Kerala, followed by people from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. There are sizeable numbers of Indian immigrants from other parts of India. Kerala as a state has become economically strong from the remittances sent by the keralite migrants to Gulf. However there has been a change in the migration trend from the aspect of the states from which Indian migrants are moving to Gulf. Kerala is witnessing a return migration of Indian immigrants from the Gulf. Kerala had dominated the scene since decades, but since the last decade the number of Indian immigrants from Kerala to Gulf has reduced by 90%.

Today, there is a large migration of people from low incomes states of India like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan-occupying the space once taken by Kerala. Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh are the other two states having a convincing number of people migrating to Gulf region. Majority of Indian expatriates to the Gulf countries are blue collar workers, working in semi skilled or unskilled jobs, like masons, helpers, domestic helps, drivers, fitters, carpenters, nurses etc. Around 20-30% of the Indian immigrants are professionals and white collar workers (doctors, engineers, architects, chartered accountants, bankers etc). Most of the Indian immigrants maintain good linkage with their home country, India as most of the Gulf countries do not allow temporary citizenship to the expatriate workers. Hence they leave their families back home in India and go to the Gulf region for earning a livelihood. The Indian expatriates visit their families once in one or two years.

As per 2018, GOI data, the distribution of Indian immigrant population in the Gulf countries are as follows:

Country	NRIs	PIOs	Overseas Indians
Baharain	312,918	3,257	316,175
Kuwait	928,421	1,482	929,903
Oman	688,226	919	689,145
Qatar	691,539	500	692,039
Saudi Arabia	2,812,408	2160	2,814,568
UAE	3,100,000	4,586	3,104,586
Total	8,533512	12.904	8,546416

Source: GOI, Ministry of external Affairs

Distribution by number of Indian workers by sending Indian state to Gulf countries in 2018

Source: GOI, Ministry of External Affairs

However there has been a decline of Indian immigrants to Gulf region since 2014, owing to various factors both in the home and host country. Wage stagnation as a result of oil prices dropping, has led to plummeting of Indians seeking for jobs in Gulf region. Implementations of policies and programs by the Governments in the Gulf region to give a lift to employment of their primary citizens in the private sector have shrunk livelihood opportunities for expatriates in the Gulf region.

Indian diaspora in Europe:

Between 1970 and 1996, an average of 5,800 Indian immigrants entered UK. Indian immigration continued an increasing trend till 2005. By 2001, it was 1 million. Out of which, one-fifth were born in South or East African countries and were second generation migrants, who explored secondary migration to UK with the hope of a bright future.UK was the most important European destination for Indians till late 1990s.

Apart from UK, top destination countries for Indian emigrants in Europe are Germany, Italy, France, Netherland, Spain, Portugal, Russia, Poland to name a few. Majority of ethnic Indians who migrated to France was through the secondary migration route from Mauritius, Seychelles and African countries too. Most of the European nations looked at tapping the high skilled talents of the Indian migrants. Germany through it’s system of Green card and to fill up the high skill IT jobs, have since past two decades has attracted Indians.

Most of the early Indian immigrants in Italy belonged to Punjab and entered the country as illegal immigrants . They are engaged in occupations in dairy and agricultural farms. However, presently Italy has appealing pull factors for Indians to settle, Firstly by having better conditions for working and living, Secondly, by providing opportunities for higher education at optimal cost and financial support by government of Italy through means of stipends, scholarships for International students, especially in the areas of engineering, design, architecture, fine arts, fashion technology, brand management etc, Thirdly , being a great tourist destination country and having massive opportunities to explore in the designing, garment, textiles, dairy sectors. Italy is the second home to 180,000 Indians. The Indian population in Italy mainly consist of Punjabi Jat Sikhs, Roman catholic Keralites as well as a growing number of Indian students from south and Eastern states. The small and medium scale industries in Italy have also attracted Indian entrepreneurs.

As of 2019, about 48,724 people of Indian immigrant descent lived in the Netherlands. Most of them live in the provinces of North Holland, South Holland and North Brabant. Most notable is the Indian presence in Amstelveen, where 5,629 of the approximately 90,000 inhabitants are Indian (6%). Most of the Indians in Netherland work in the Information Technology and Information services.

Indian diaspora in Africa:

The number of Indians in the African continent have risen to 2,710,6545. Footprints of the diaspora are found in in 46 nations of the continent. The size of the Indian diaspora is 12.37% of the total Indian diaspora across the world. The spread of Indian diaspora population varies substantially across the continent.

Though Mauritius is an Arican nation, yet the number of ethnic Indians living there accounts to 70% of the total population. Nigeria accounts for 8,00,000 Indians and many of them have thriving businesses (Weikipedia). With a population of about 14 lakhs, Hinduism is followed by more than 50% of the population in Mauritius. This island has the highest percentage of Hindus in Africa and third highest percentage of Hindus in the world after Nepal and India. Mauritian Indians from different regions of India speak various languages, which includes Hindi. Bhojpuri, Tamil, Hindi, Marathi, Telugu and Oriya. All Mauritian kids from age six have to opt for either Hindi, Urdu, Tamil, Mandarin, Telugu, Marathi or Oriya as a third language in school. Mauritian Creole is a widely spoken national language but a minority of Indo-Mauritians still speaks their ancestral language at home. They are also the only Indians who can speak French fluently. Indian films are popularly liked by people in most African countries.

The Ministry of External Affairs data, reflects that the population of Overseas Indians in South Africa by the end of 2018 was over 1.5 million; of which 60,000 are NRIs and 15,00,000 are Persons of Indian Origin.Indians in South Africa are concentrated in and around Durban. Post Apartheid period, saw many Indians travelling to South Africa. Indian migration to South Africa in the past few decades is due to various reasons. Firstly, the cost of migration to South Africa and other African countries is relatively cheaper than migration to European or American nations. Secondly, there is cultural relatedness and Indian networks already exist.Thirdly, South Africa being a growing economy and part of BRICKS nations is perceived as a land, where opportunities for businesses and employment can be explored. Today Indian professionals in the sectors of Information Technology, Banking, medicine and other sectors live in South Africa. Many Indians have become flourishing entrepreneurs in South Africa. Held annually in Lenasia, the Gandhi Walk is the oldest event in South Africa commemorating Mahatma Gandhi. It has been held 34 times in with the last edition being held in 2019. The South Africans are well conversed with Bollywood movies, which acts as an anchor for them to be receptive to the Indian migrants.

Indian diaspora in South East Asia:

Indian diaspora roughly form 8% and 9% of the population of Malayasia and Singapore. In Myanmar, Indians constitute 4% of the total population and correspondingly 0.5% in Indonesia. Tamils, Sikhs and Sindhis in Indonesia are quite successful in running enterprises in various sectors like construction, textiles, sports goods etc. Many Indian emigrants occupy senior executive position in MNCs and local companies and in the IT, education and technology sector.

In Malayasia, the social, Political and economic status of the Indian diaspora is comparatively poorer than the Chinese and Malay population. However Indians are mostly engaged in entrepreneurial activities like services, construction and related activities. Politically, Indians in Malaysia are weakly represented.

Amongst all South East Asian countries, the Indian diaspora in Singapore is affluent. In 2004, 8.4 percent (293,000) of Singapore's population were of Indian origin. As a result of Singapore's astute immigration policy, low rates in taxes, economic progress, onus on merit and talent, the country has experienced a large inflow of Indian professionals since the 1990s.Indians in Singapore are well represented in all sectors in viable and senior positions. Some of the prominent persons of Indian origin include former President Late S. R. Nathan and Late S. Rajaratnam, an influential and recognized persona in the public domain of Singapore, among many others. The country has grown on the foundation of meritocracy in contrast to any preveileges on the basis of ethnicity, class, race, community, language or region This is one of the most important reasons stimulating the triumph of the Indian community.

In Myanmar the ethnic Indians have faced discrimination and marginalization after it’s Independence in 1948. This was quite contrary to Myanmar’s pre- independence period when Indians occupied and dominated all spheres of social, political or economic life. After 1948, nationalisation policies implemented by the political establishment led to an exodus of Indians on a large scale. A small size of Indians from the business community stayed back.

Indian diaspora in Oceania:

At the Australian Bureau of Statistics' 2019 census, 666,000 people in Australia declared that they were of ethnic Indian ancestry. This is an increase of 11 percent from the 592,000 Indians in Australia in 2018. The highest population growth is found in Sydney, Melbourne and South-East Queensland. Majority of Indian Australians are Hindus. There are Indians following other religions like Islam, Budhism, Christianity etc. Data compiled in 2016, revealed that 54.6% of Indian migrants in Australia hold a bachelor's degree or a higher educational degree.

India annually contributes the largest number of migrants to both Australia and New Zealand. The recent migrants go from various places of India and there is a blend of culture. Hindi and Punjabi are the two Indian languages widely spoken by the Indian community apart from other regional languages.

According to the Statistics NewZealand report 2018, the Indian diaspora in New Zealand crossed 200,000. Majority Kiwi Indians are Hindus. There are Indian immigrants of other religions too. Secondary migration of Indian ancestry to Australia and New Zealand had occurred from Fiji.

In New Zealand, the Indian-born population spear headed from 6,500 in 1986 to 43,300 (4.9 percent of all immigrants) in 2006. Australia and New Zealand have a healthy size of Indian diaspora mainly for three prominent reasons. Firstly, both the countries are wooing English speaking, highly skilled IT and other service sector personnel for their technology sectors; Secondly, both these countries since a decade have become a fertile destination for Indian students aiming for higher education. Thirdly, Australian citizenship attainment policies since 1998 have become very favourable for foreigners who are working or studying in Australia to obtain Australian citizenship without having to leave the country ; Fourthly a growing ethnic Indian community has increased family sponsored immigration

Contribution to the host country by Indian diaspora:

Foreign immigrants have contributed $ 2 trillion to the US economy in 2015-16. Out of this Indian immigrants are the most entrepreneurial group. The high end technically qualified manpower pool of Microsoft, Cisco systems; Google, Intel, Facebook and other high-tech companies constitute 20% Indian expatriates. Several Indian immigrants have escalated to top executive positions including adorning the CEO position of some Fortune 500 companies in US. To name a few, Sundar Pachai at Google, Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Shantanu Narayan of Adobe systems, Sanjay Mehrortra of Microtone Technology. Apart from the Technology companies, Indians have done tremendously well in other fields too. In the financial business sector, some of the prominent names are that of Ajit Jain, who is contributing remarkably as the Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hethaway and head of its Insurance business. Since 2016, N.P Narvekar has responsibly headed the utilizationof Havard University’s $39million endowment. Vikram Pundit is the Co-founder of Oregon group. Earlier he was the CEO of Citicorp. According to a study by the National foundation for American policy, Indians initiated 14 of the 87 fast accelerating American companies with an awesome valuation of more than US$1 billion. All the 1^st generation or second generation Indian migrants to US are strengthening the US economy firstly, by contributing to revenue generation for the companies or organizations they are heading or working in top executive position, Secondly, they are contributing by means of taxes and thirdly, by generating employment for millions of people in USA. The academicians, scientists and doctors of Indian origin are also engaged in path breaking research which leads to inventions and generation of revenue. It is evident that US has experienced brain gain through Indian immigrants and high GDP. Indians are now active participants in US politics. Some of the known faces in US politics of Indian origin are Kamala Harris, Nikki Helley, Bobby Jindal,

Indian immigrants in Canada contribute by means of their skilled and professional expertise in various sectors including Information technology, Science and research. Apart from that Canadian economy gains through the revenue generated from the fees given by the large size of the Indian students who are thronging to Canada for higher education, taxes paid by professionals and entrepreneurs. Indian diaspora contribution in Australia and New Zealand contributes in similar manner as the diaspora contribution in Canada. Similar trend in contribution is seen in European countries by the Indian immigrants. Indians have a carved an adorable niche in the social-cultural realm in many European countries, especially in United Kingdom. ‘Curry’is a word that most English and Irish citizens are familiar with. Similarly there is a strong refraction of Indian culture in USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand too

Indian immigrants to the Gulf countries contribute mainly by providing cheap unskilled, semi skilled labour in plenty. Gulf countries also gain from the service of the knowledge workers and professionals who migrate to work as sales personnel, nurses, teachers, Professors, doctors too. The high end professionals also contribute in terms of taxes.

In the South East Asian countries, the Indian diaspora, especially in Singapore contributes by means of the professional expertise. Singapore experience brain gain through the Indian diaspora contribution in the field of research and innovation, medicine and technology, economics, politics etc.

Indian immigrants in African nations have contributed to the economies by means of revenue generation and employment generation by Indo-African entrepreneurs. They have also left lasting impact on the culture of the host nations. Hindi film songs and Indian cuisine has made it’s way into the African homes too. The exceptional influence of Indian culture is obvious in Mauritius. There is socio-cultural and linguistic impact in Mauritian society. Indians being the largest segment of the population are highest taxpayers too. Indians have contributed in all spheres of development of the country, whether in legal, political or administrative sphere.

Challenges faced by the Indian diaspora:

Majority of the Indian migrants to Gulf countries are temporary blue collar workers, who have paid ridiculously inflated fees to the recruitment agencies for landing them with jobs in the destination countries. Since 2015, the Arab employers are hesitant to employ Indian workers in blue collar jobs since the government of India has tightened measures to ensure safety, security and minimum wages to be paid to the workers in the Gulf countries.

In most Gulf countries, there is a system Kafala system of foreign labour sponsorship being followed, which binds the workers to their employers. This makes them completely helpless, an easy tool for oppression in the hands of their employers.

Most of the gulf countries abstain Indian workers from getting legal citizenship. The laws of these countries are so framed that only professionals have legitimate rights to take their families with them, though there are still a number of restrictions in the process.

Increase in tax rates, renewal fees as well as cost of utilities and basic goods have triggered a clear rise in the cost of living. The conditions of remuneration and employment differ among the different categories of employees. Exploitation may range from working for long hours, living in poor barrack like allotted accommodation, losing substantial amount of money through various deduction of fees from their salaries, non-payment of overtime dues, in some cases denying weekly holidays and many times, their employers withhold their salaries too.

The workers face number of hurdles when they decide to return home. The mandatory seize of their passports by their employers on reaching the gulf destinations for work, makes them remain at the mercy of their employers

Gulf region being dominated by Islamic countries, there are number of restrictions and very strict laws. Even aberrations which may not be crime outside the Gulf countries have stringent punishment there. Hence sometimes immigrants may unknowingly or unintentionally walk on the wrong side of the law and languish in jail.

Indian professionals and students many times in the past few years have faced harassment and racial discrimination. Since Indian diaspora members in most European and North American countries belong to higher strata of the population in their host countries by virtue of their education, skills, income and have made headways in almost all sectors of the high end economies, they are envied and the locals sometimes consider them as threats. Hence there are numerous incidents of hate crimes inflicted on them. Some of the crimes are as brutal murder of the Indian immigrant.

Trump administration’s restrictive immigration policies, has rattled the existing and potential Indian immigrants to US. The US administration has temporarily suspended issuing of H-1B visas which has proven to be the most used immigration channel by Indian immigrants to US. India accounts for about 70% of the 85,000 H-1B visas issued annually, according to immigration data. The most recent visa curbs could hamper outsourcers’ current model of talent deployment (Print, June2020)

Post the World trade centre terrorist attacks; there has been many violent attacks on Sikhs and their places of worship (Gurudwaras) too in US, Canada, Australia etc. The Indian Muslims have also been subjected to violent attacks.Singapore and other South East Asian countries; though have been found to be safe places, yet there were ethnic attacks on Indians few times in the past decade.

India’s policy of engagement with the Diaspora:

Prior to Independence of India, under the Briitish rule, the Indian diaspora was sparsely spread, and were mostly indentured labourers, traders and merchants. The Indian national Congress exerted pressure on the British government to well treat the indentured Indian labourers in the British colonies. During the colonial period, the Freedom movement in India influenced the Indians living abroad to extend their support to the movement. Specially the Indian in South East Asian countries assisted the Azad Hind Fauz. The Gadar movement commenced in California and the Komagata Maru incident in Canada had political implications and laid pressure on the colonial rulers. In fact Mahatma Gandhi was part of the Indian diaspora and his movement against the British stemmed from his experience in South Africa and he initiated his civil disobedience movement from South Africa

Post Independence, India at least had its own government to decide on its policy towards the diaspora. The First Priminister, Mr Jawaharlal Nehru decided on a more closed approach towards the Indian diaspora. Though the Nehruvian policy decided to pursue industrialization, but failed to acknowledge the role of diaspora in India’s economic, cultural political growth. During the military coup in Burma in the 1960s, around 300,000 Indians fled the country. Their houses were looted and their businesses were nationalized. Many of them came and lived as refugees in India. India turned a blind eye to the mass oppression of Burmese Indians.

Nehruvian policy of idealism and indifference towards the diaspora continued till 1980. During 1972, in Uganda, under the leadership of Adi Amin, the Asians including Indians were expelled from the country. The Indians lost their property and were left in lurch. The Indian government paid no attention to the misery of Indians, who eventually migrated to different countries like Canada, UK, Kenya and settled.

The global economic meltdown during 1970s spinned the coin in a different motion. The economic crunch due to oil shocks and balance of payment crisis catalysed the government of India to urgur for remittance from Indians staying abroad, especially in the Gulf countries. Though Indira Gandhi was a popular world leader and had a foreign policy based on realism, but the diaspora policy remained more or less same as during the Nehruvian age.

During the period of Rajiv Gandhi ‘s regime, the cooperation between third world countries accelerated .This gave a slight shift to India’s policy towards it’s diaspora too. Rajiv Gandhi extended his support and also tried to handle Fiji Indian crisis in 1986, without much success. Again almost 49% of the Fijian populations were Indian emigrants, majority of whom migrated to Australia and New Zealand. Polices need to be supported by structural change in Government machinery too. In 1984, during the regime of Rajiv Gandhi, Indian over Seas Affairs department was established. However there was no continuous, constructive, consistent effort espoused with a global vision to engage with the diaspora. Towards the beginning of 1990s, due to awful economic crisis with depleted foreign reserve, a shift in global economy, led the Indian Government during the tenure of Mr. Narashima Rao to embark on a policy of, ‘Liberalization Privatization and Globalization’.

This was a paradigm shift in the Indian government’s stand to invigorate India’s economy. Implementation of open economy required deregulation of cumbersome and stifling legislations. Efforts were also made to lure Indians living abroad to invest in India. Opportunities from different quarters opened up for foreign direct investment and remittances to flow into India. This solved the foreign reserve crisis that India was facing and was a great learning point for India’s subsequent governments too.

India’s diaspora policy went through a radical transformation. The NDA government led by BJP understood the significance of Indian diaspora and the relevance of developing strategy, structure, system, mechanisms aided by Information technology to establish consistent, continuous and sustainable engagement with the diaspora. The Chennai declaration of the BJP gave a key hole view to it’s perspective and the intent towards the diaspora.

“We believe that the vast community of NRIs and PIOs also constitute a part of the ‘Great Indian Family’. We should endeavour to continually strengthen their social, cultural, economic and emotional ties with their mother country. They are a rich reservoir of intellectual, managerial and entrepreneurial resources. The government should devise innovative schemes to facilitate the investment of these resources for India’s all-round development “(BJP News Report, 28^th and 29^th December 1999).

The NDA government came into power in 1999. Remaining true to it’s declaration, the NDA government under Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee initiated wide range of plans and undertook various measures to bridge the gap with the vast Indian diaspora, such as the appointment of a Committee of recognized experts to conduct research and give suggestions on Indian Diaspora, launching and promulgation of PIO card scheme, organizing annual Pravsi Bharatiya Divas on 9^th January (presently once in two years), giving out Pravasi Bharatiya Samman awards to NRIs for their achievement and contribution, offering Dual citizenship (OCI) and so on. The subsequent UPA government established a separate Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs which had taken several initiatives for engaging the Diaspora, though not in a consistent manner.

From 2014 onwards, with the ascent of the NDA government back into power at the centre under the leadership of the Priminister Mr, Narendra Modi, there were many more pertinent measures adopted to connect with the diaspora.

To begin with for the first time in the history of Independent India, the Extenal Affairs Ministry was not headed by the Priminister of India. The Priminister chose to have a minister who was highly educated and having proficiency in law, possessing great oratory and relationship management skills to head the Ministry of External Affairs, Mrs Sushma Swaraj. This was obviously to give importance to the ministry and accelerate focus on India’s relationship with the diaspora as well as build amicable bilateral relationship with other countries.

She broke precedence of the External Affairs ministry from being a cold, aloof ministry meant only for diplomacy to an accessible ministry for general public and the diaspora. Using social media platforms on a daily basis to interact with the members of the diaspora, she was marching into the hearts of the Diaspora members. Any Indian emigrant in distress in any part of the world could easily communicate with her and she ensured that the individual is reprieved of his agonizing circumstance. She would call up the Indian envoy in that country at any time in any time zone to rush assistance to the distressed Indian abroad who sought her help. She not only gave command to help but meticulously followed up, keeping herself updated with details. She gave the human touch to the Ministry of External Affairs and was like the lady with a lamp for every Indian anywhere in the world. She carried out constant interaction with the Indian embassies.

For days, sometime in 2014, the adroit minister played her role immaculately in evacuating 46 nurses from the captivity of the ISIS in the war torn Iraq region. Her astute diplomacy, warmth, sincerity, refined negotiation skills and the feeling of brotherhood that she infused in all the Indian embassies, diplomats, officials and her counterpart ministers of other countries helped her achieve this indomitable task. Her diplomatic efforts along with the legal excellence of Mr Harish Salve helped India win in the international court of justice its legal battle to save Captain Kulbushan Jadav from persecution in the hands of Pakistan.

These were few of the many other incidents that were carried out under her leadership to protect and rescue Indians in foreign countries at the time of distress. She imbibed the philosophy of India as a big family consisting of it’s diaspora as part of the same unit. She relentlessly pursued India’s cause against all odds, juggled with every possible option that she could utilize to save Indians caught in war zones, captured by terrorists, lost or facing any legal issues in any country or any other matter. She exuded warmth at every touch point and understood the apparent need to keep interacting with external affairs ministries of most of the nations. Mrs Swaraj, not only helped Indians residing in foreign countries, but she was just a call or message away to help any citizen of any country facing any distressful situation in India.

With her death in 2019 Aug, Mr Jai Shankar, a former diplomat adorned the chair of the External Affairs ministry. His healthy years of experience as a diplomat, as a civil servant and with a very intelligent mind, he is continuing to tread on the footprints of the former minister and engaging with the Diasporas all around the world. Nevertheless he played a vital role in evacuating Indians stranded in different countries during covid pandemic.

The Priminister of India made a number of foreign trips in the first few years in office to meet and engage with the leaders of the world. Every visit that the Priminister made was not over, without holding a massive engaging session with the Indian diaspora in that country. So there were thousands of people who throng to hear him in the Maddisson ground in US, in Australia, in UAE, in Israeal so on and so for. The Priminister opened his arms with warmth to the diaspora members, acknowledged their achievements in their host countries, asked for their contribution to the home country, sold the perspective of the New India that he envisioned and motivated the Indian emigrants to be part of India’s growth story.

Hence his approach struck a chord with the diaspora which for major part of the time after independence had felt alienated by their home country. They now feel preveileged and have positive sentiments linking them to their roots and it observed that there is an increasing trend in the diaspora contribution in the form of FDIs. Remittances, cultural exchanges, expertise in technology, science, medicine, donations, lobbying for India in International affairs and many more areas.

The Priminister of India has made 104 trips to 57 countries (till July 2020) since he came to power in May 2014.In most of his visits, he was heartily welcomed by the diaspora with a feeling of pride.

Contribution of the Indian diaspora to it’s home country:

The Indian diaspora is contributing progressively to India’s development and growth. The diaspora contribution is more consistent and at various frontiers of development. The diaspora acts as a ‘soft power’. The success of the Indian diaspora has helped in building and strengthening this soft power influence. The Indian diaspora’s contribution and commitment based on sentimental association with it’s roots and pragmatism, wrapped with an intent to see India as a developed state guides it’s collaboration in the socio-economic and political development of the country. Many eminent Indian immigrants are investing resources for scientific development as well as rural development. The diaspora also acts as cultural ambassador and assists in creating fruitful perception of ‘s India’s culture and heritage. This indirectly motivates people in their host countries to visit India as tourists and also build viable relationship with India through trade and cultural exchanges.

Indian Diaspora as a strategic partner in India’s foreign policy:

· The Diaspora had played pertinent role prior to 1990, though sporadic and inconsistent. However the Indian Government was not having a progressive trend of engagement with the diaspora till Indian economy opened up. The diaspora played a vital role in giving shape to the India-US Civil Nuclear deal. Indian diaspora undoubtedly has strengthened its soft power status globally.

· Today the Indian diaspora in US is the second largest immigrant community in the states and still growing by the years. Being perceived as a strong and progressive community, the Indian diaspora has a credible influence on American politics and policies. Hence their influence to exhort for a healthy bia-leteral relationship between India and US is evident with the present status of Indo-US ties. This is quite unlike the period prior and during cold war when US and India were poles apart.The US government cannot risk losing the support of the Indian diaspora as they are high tax payers and have tremendous influence on US economy and politics too.The grand reception given by the Diaspora to Priminister Modi in Houston in 2019 was a result of India’s diaspora diplomacy.

· India has very good relation today with the Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and UAE since these countries are dependent on the large size of the skilled, semi skilled and unskilled labour from India.India’s efforts at the diplomatic front also harnessed good relationship with the gulf nations.

· Whether it is in Australia, South Africa, South Eastern countries, the diaspora has worked religiously for strengthening the ties between India and their host countries. India’s foreign policy, astute diplomatic ties and the ever rising size and calibre of the diaspora, cumulatively have worked to make India a strong globally revered country today. In matters of International affairs, through the diaspora lobbying and diplomatic engagement, India can garner support for it’s cause. India has demonstrated its diplomatic influence with the reappointment of Justice Dalveer Bhandari to the International Court of Justice in November 2017, when it secured two-thirds of the votes at the UN

Remittance that flow into India:

Indian diaspora has made viable contribution to the Indian economy by means of remittances that the diaspora members send to their families and friends back in India. The remittances have been growing .India was the highest receipient of remittances in 2018 with 79 billion US $ and subsequently retained the first position in receiving remittance of 83 billion US $ in 2019.However the World bank has predicted a 23 % dip in the remittances flowing to India in 2020 as a result of the covid pandemic, triggering the global recession. The projected fall can be attributed mainly to the slip in wages and employment of migrant workers who are vulnerable to economic crisis in host countries as well as change in policies that may happen to counter the crisis.

Much contrary to assumption, though the number of Indians migrating to Gulf for work declined since 2014, the remittance increased by 14% in 2018 to $78.6 billion. Such continuance of financial fund flow from the Gulf region can be attributed to the following factors:

First being the sheer number of Indians who are in contractual agreement of work and still send back some portion of money from their earning.

The second being the depreciation of rupee

The third is the migrant returnees to India have brought back the wealth they accumulated during their tenure of work in the Gulf.

Fourth being that many migrant workers, having worked for many years have made a progressive ascend in the social ladder by harnessing better skills and receiving higher wages that enable them to send large sums to their families and extended families back in India.

Fifth reason could be that many Indian immigrants to gulf are engaged in white collar and high skilled, knowledge based occupations, there by earning high income and sending large sums in remittance.

FDI inflow to India:

Being one of the fastest growing economy, India is a prime destination for foreign direct investment. A large consumer base, growing disposable income, an improving index for ease of doing business , a growing Indian diaspora , a plethora of tax and policy benefits for NRI and FIIs investment in India have value added to the increase in FDI. In 2017, the FDI inflow to the country was valued at 43 billion US dollars. The services sector in India received the highest share in FDIs amounting to over 554 billion Indian rupees in fiscal year 2020. This sector included finance, banking, insurance and other non-financial sectors like research and development, testing, analysis and outsourcing. The computer hardware and software sector came second amounting to almost 324 billion Indian rupees that year.FDI inflow to India in 2018 was $42 billion and in 2019 was $51billion, a 16% rise than the previous year (UNCTAD report 2020)

The following chart represents FDI inflow to India in Financial year 2020 by leading investing country.

(In billion Indian rupees)

Source: www.statista.com

The top four countries from where investment flowed to India have relatively large Indian diaspora. Though FDI flow was from people of foreign origin as well as the India immigrants, yet undoubtedly the diaspora acts as a catalyst for FDI flow, apart from other factors.

Diaspora contribution in IT:

Indian diaspora consist of many people who have made a stellar reputation for themselves in the field of Information technology. These people have invested in opening IT ventures in India as well as training, building and providing employment to young Indians in the field of IT.

Diaspora assistance during Covid19:

The Indian diaspora in US made significant endeavour to collect fund during covid 19 from the immigrant Indians in US and channelized the fund through various agencies and NGOs to help the migrant labourers and financially marginal people by providing food, medicines and clothes both in US and in India. Similarly the diaspora members in other foreign countries pitched in to help stranded Indians and other marginal and suffering people during Covid19.

Initiatives taken by the Government of India to safeguard the interests of it’s diaspora:

The government of India has taken some well thought of initiatives to protect the rights and dignity of Indian workers in Gulf countries:

In May 2015, the Government of India introduced the computerized e-migrate system to regulate overseas employment of Indians.

The Government of India also put into place minimum referral wages (MRWs) to regulate the wages of Indian migrant blue collar workers and protect them from exploitation in the six Gulf countries and another 12 countries which have proven to have unfriendly atmosphere for emigrant labour.

The Indian government has prepared and deployed awareness programme intending to educate the migrant workers travelling abroad for employment on areas of their rights, the responsibilities and connectivity with the Indian embassies, the laws and rules of the destination countries, the safety and protection measures they may follow during their work abroad as well as guidelines for for pre-departure, rehabilitation upon return etc.

In UAE, at Sarjah, the GOI has established an Indian workers resource centre to extend assistance to those who may be at risk of exploitation

The GOI has started community welfare funds, which levy small fees from consular services to support Indian nationals caught in crisis or emergency situations.

The Ministry for External Affairs continues its diplomatic ties and interaction with their counterparts in the Gulf States for the welfare of Indian workers

As already pointed out, the External Affairs Ministry is highly accessible and proactive in helping the diaspora members in crisis since past few years.

The Indian envoys in the Indian embassies are keeping in close contact with the diaspora associations and are continuing value added engagement quite a number of times in a year.

Diplomatic dialogues with various host countries are being carried out by the External affairs minister as well as the Priminister of India if the problem is very imminent. The Priminister of India had discussions with the President of USA on its restrictive H-1B visa issuance, in 2019.

The Ministry of Finance has taken many initiatives and has rolled out various provisions for encouraging NRI investment in India by means of roll back of dividend distribution taxes, encouraging investment in agriculture, education and infrastructure by various means etc.

As already mentioned earlier, holding of Pravasi Bhatiya Divas on 9^th January every year. This occasion witnesses many NRIs and PIOs visiting India and engaging in discussion with the government of India to bolster India’s socio-economic development.

Since 2016, the Government of India has doubled the number of awardees of Pravasi Bharatiya Samman to 30 after having decided to grant the award once every two years. It is a State recognition and the award is handed to the receipients by none other than the First citizen of the country, The President of India.

Overseas citizenship of India scheme: Under the scheme, a registered Overseas Citizen of India is granted multiple entry, multi purpose, life-long visa for visiting India, he/she is exempted from registration with Foreign Regional Registration Officer or Foreign Registration Officer for any length of stay in India, and is entitled to general 'parity with Non-Resident Indians in respect of all facilities available to them in economic, financial and educational fields except in matters relating to the acquisition of agricultural or plantation properties. However he/she does not have the political right, either to vote or contest in Indian elections

Initiatives taken by India during Covid 19 pandemic to help Indian diaspora:

For the purpose of helping Indians working, studying and living abroad, the Government of India functionalized A COVID-19 cell to ensure greater access and precision of information. Indian embassy posts have been directed and given clear cut guidelines to retrieve Indians and assist them during the Covid mayhem. Missions/Posts abroad have been advised to set up completely operational and accessible 24×7 helpline numbers, e-mail service to communicate and publicize the same widely among the Indian communities through social networking portals and Govt of India as well as embassy websites to assist stranded Indians. Nodal officers have been identified with well instructed responsibilities and accountabilities set. Since the outbreak of Covid 19, the Government of India had taken series of constructive steps to ensure safety, welfare and well being of the Indian nationals. Though it was not possible to evacuate stranded Indians during lockdown. The first phase of evacuation started in May 2020. India evacuated many stranded Indians from abroad during covid 19.Especially Indian students and low skilled workers from the Gulf region were placed in the priority list for evacuation.

The way forward:

Though there has been productive endeavour from the Indian government for connecting and building relationship with the Indian diaspora, yet more intense, vigorous and sustainable approach is required to make the engagement more beneficial for both the home country and the diaspora. India has still not been very successful in utilizing diaspora talent in science, medicine, innovation and economics. India must frame comprehensive plans after thorough discussion and contemplation with the experts within the diaspora to utilize their knowledge and skills for boosting India’s scientific research and development in various domains which will provide solution for food scarcity, renewable energy, protecting the environment etc. Indian government must make sincere efforts to utilize diaspora talents in enriching higher education. Many immigrant Indians have done astoundingly well in Economics. India must with an open mind utilize the notable economists within the diaspora on a continuous and consistent basis to frame model for poverty reduction and steering the economy in a sound direction. With the recession in economy presently due to Covid 19, large scale unemployment and displacement is undoubtedly a burden on India’s economy. India is considered as an emerging economy, yet the Indian economy shrank 23.9% (www.tradingeconomics.com) year-on-year in the second quarter of 2020.It is extremely necessary , more than before to bring Economic giants within the diaspora and the experts from within the country to contemplate and devise action plans for helping India come out of this economic mayhem.

REFERENCES:

1. Adams, R.H. (1991), “International remittances and the household: analysis and review of global evidence”, Journal of African Economies, 15(2): 396-425.

2. Asian Development Bank (2005), Asian Economic Cooperation and Integration: Progress, Prospects, and Challenges, Asian Development Bank, Manila.

3. Basu, S. (2016), “Diasporas transforming homelands: nuancing ‘collective remittance’ practices in rural Gujarat”, Economic Political Weekly, 51( 41): 54-62.

4. Bhensdadia, R.R. and Dana, L.-P. (2004), “Globalisation and rural poverty”, International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, 4(5): 458-468.

5. Briner, R.B. and Walshe, N.D. (2015), “From passively received wisdom to actively constructed knowledge: teaching systematic review skills as a foundation of evidence-based management”, Academy of Management Learning and Education, Vol. 2015 No. 1, pp. 63-80.

6. Diallo B, Zurn. K, Vujicic. P, Adams (2004), “Migration of health care worker from developing countries: strategic approaches to its management”, Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 82( 8): 595-600.

7. Kapur, Devesh (2010) Diaspora, Development and Democracy: The Domestic Impact of International Migration from India, Oxford University Press.

8. Makumi, M. (2012), “East Africa-India relations: prospects for sustainable diasporic diplomacy”, in

9. Mwagiru, M. and B Biswas, A. (Eds), East Africa-India Security Relations, IDIS/PRIASA, Nairobi, pp. 123-131.

10. Manda, G. (2004), “Brain drain or brain gain?”, New African, 435, December, 74.

11. Meyer, K. and Sinani, E.J. (2009), “When and where does foreign direct investment generate positive spillovers? A meta-analysis”, Journal of International Business Studies, 40( 7): 1075-1094.

12. Mishra, A.K. (2016), “Diaspora, development and the Indian state”, The round Table, 105(6): 701-721.

13. Mohieldin, M. and Ratha, D. (2014), “Can sending money home spur economic growth?”, World

14. Economic Forum

15. Plaza, S., Ratha, D. and Youseﬁ, S.R. (2015), “Technological innovations and remittances”, Background

16. paper for the World Development Report 2016 “Digital Dividends”.

17. Press Information Bureau (PIB) (2018), Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, Government of India.

18. Sheffer, G. (2006), Diaspora Politics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

19. Sheffer, G. (2013), “Integration impacts on diaspora–homeland relations”, Diaspora Studies, 6 (1): 13-30.

20. Sahoo, S. and Patnaik, D. (2010), “Networking development: study of the emerging areas of diasporic engagement in India”, Diaspora Studies, 3(1): 23-40.

21. Sahoo, S. and Pattanaik, B.K. (2014), Global Diasporas and Development: Socioeconomic, Cultural, and Policy Perspectives, Springer, New Delhi.

22. Santamaria-Alvarez, S.M. and S^'liwa, M. (2016), “Transnational entrepreneurship in emerging markets the Colombian case”, Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, 10(2): 203-223.

23. Tseng, W. and Harm, Z. (2002), “Foreign direct investment in china: some lessons for other

24. countries”, IMF Policy discussion paper, Asia and Paciﬁc Department, International Monetary Fund.

25. UNDP (United Nations Development Program) (2009), Overcoming Barriers: Human Mobility and Development, United Nations Development Program, New York, NY.

26. World Bank (2006b), Global Economic Prospects 2006: Economic Implications of Remittances and Migration, World Bank, Washington DC.

27. Ye, M. (2009), “Ethnic investors vs foreign investors: the impact of diasporas on economic liberalization in China and India”, Paper presented at American Political Science Association, Annual Convention, 3-6 September, Toronto

Received on 12.04.2021 Modified on 05.05.2021

Res. J. Humanities and Social Sciences. 2021; 12(2):71-85.

DOI: 10.52711/2321-5828.2021.00012