The Hindu Business Line : Hail the NRIs

Vande mataram, or hail the nation is our national song. Non-resident Indians (NRIs), who doubtless hail their nation despite migrating to greener pastures, should, in turn, be hailed by India. In fact, this is being done in the form of dual passports for residents of select countries, higher rates of interest on deposits made in Indian banks — which concession is rightly frowned upon by and, hence, under attack from Tarapore Committee II — and quite a few other preferences.

Catching up with China

But more needs to be done to tap the enormous resources the NRIs can offer to the nation. Initially, it was the Chinese Diaspora that brought huge foreign direct investments (FDIs) into that country, which became the envy of other fast developing nations. Of course, transnational corporations later on saw the cost advantage in the form of almost 90 per cent savings in labour costs in locating their units in China.

But we in India have been slow to tap the full potential of NRIs, except perhaps in the IT and IT-enabled industry. True, many engineering graduates who went abroad during the days of stifling restrictions — vindicating the immortal words of the former Indian Ambassador to the US, Prof Abid Hussain, that "it is better to have brain drain than brain in the drain" — are returning to India slowly if not in droves in the wake of the marked improvement in the economic scene and regulatory environment.

We must, however, do more to convert the huge remittances made by NRIs — such remittances have incidentally been steadily rising and are now more than double the amount India attracts by way of FDI — into investments that would propel the economy into the fast mode needed to catch up with China.

It is all very easy to shrug off beneficiaries of such remittances as money-order states because these remittances have the powerful potential to transform the industrial landscape of India if only they could be properly canalised into investments through policy initiatives.

Luring back the doctors

Indian doctors who are doing wonderfully well in the US should be lured back because the healthcare industry here has tremendous potential in view of its cost competitiveness — there is an almost 50 per cent cost advantage in getting bypass surgery done in India than in the US and in the UK.

India then could truly become the natural choice for medico-tourism, an idea romanticised by economists in the know. And talking of tourism, the Indian embassies abroad and the Ministry of Tourism should focus more on Diaspora tourism.

For a foreigner, India is just another tourist destination. But for an NRI it is much more. He is bound to go down memory lane and be seized by nostalgia. And what is more, his progeny can also be given a taste of India.

(The author is a Delhi-based chartered accountant.)