The Hindu Business Line : Helpline for overseas workers may be launched

The Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs, Mr Vayalar Ravi, addressing a curtain raiser conference on ‘Pravasi Bharatiya Divas’ in the Capital on Friday. —

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Jan. 4 The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, is expected to launch the Overseas Workers Resource Centre (OWRC), a helpline for emigrant workers, and announce some key measures for the welfare of Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) during the 6th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD).

Key initiatives include a marketplace by the Overseas Indian Facilitation Center (OIFC) for business promotion and exhibitions by 17 States and 50 private exhibitors.

“The OIFC is focused on facilitating B2B partnerships and knowledge transfers in real estate, wealth management and small and medium enterprises. We are also finding a lot of interest among NRIs to use the ‘marketplace’ to set up business meetings with potential partners in India,” Mr Vayalar Ravi, Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs, said at a press conference here on Friday.

The PBD, jointly organised by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, Government of Delhi and Confederation of Indian Industry, will be held from January 7 to 9. This year the theme of the convention is ‘Engaging the Diaspora: The Way Forward’.

“The PBD will aim to involve the Indian diaspora in development of education and health care in rural areas of the country,” Mr Ravi said.

He added that they were expecting a good response from NRIs and persons of Indian origin for their involvement in development programmes at the block level.

According to him, there are two ways of involvement — philanthropy and investment. “Whichever way they choose, we would facilitate them by creating a single window system,” Mr Ravi added.

Pointing out that investment by NRIs in the last ten years has been very negligible, Mr Ravi said that the volume can increase by their active participation in various programmes.

“We want to make it a movement by involving diaspora for women empowerment and children welfare at the block, panchayat and village level. Individuals can choose villages for their participation in development work,” he said.

Other issues that are expected to be addressed during the conference are women empowerment through microfinance and child welfare.

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