• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager
• BL Club
• Smartbuy

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Rasheeda Bhagat
M. Ramesh

Singapore, Oct. 11 The Indian Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs, Mr Vyalar Ravi, did not miss an opportunity to take a swipe at the Left-ruled West Bengal, while answering a question from journalists at a press conference held on the sidelines of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) Singapore, organised by his ministry, the CII and the Singapore India Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

He was giving details on how the first University where the children of NRIs and PIOs would have 50 per cent reservation, was being set up in Bangalore by the Manipal University. While this was expected to start functioning within two years, the Indian government was examining proposals to set up three more such universities, where there would be similar quotas offered, as well as scholarships for the children of “poor NRIs”.

Asked if acquisition of land for such universities would not be a problem, he said: “Singur is not India; the CPM is now being paid back in the same coin.”

Elaborating, Mr Ravi said the moment the Nano project in Singur was in trouble “six chief ministers immediately invited Tata Motors to move the Nano plant to their States. So that is the real India.”

But he admitted that litigation, when such proposals came up, did delay matters. For instance, for the Bangalore institution, where several specialties would be offered, cases were filed in courts by people who said they wanted to set up such an institution. But now such stays had been vacated.

The Minister said his ministry was taking a number of measures to protect the rights of Indians working overseas, including suspending unscrupulous recruitment agents. It had already signed MoUs with West Asian countries such as the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait, and efforts were on to do so with Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. “We’ve also started negotiating with European countries like France to ensure that Indian workers, who are going to be there for less than five years, do not have to pay social security taxes.”

Mr Ravi said he was extremely happy about the successful outcome of the second mini PBD held in Singapore. “This conference, where the topmost people from the Singapore government participated — the Minister Mentor, Senior Ministers, the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister — has sent a strong message. It has opened the new emerging India to this part of the world and sent the signal that India will always be an attractive destination for foreign investments.”

He added that though India “is not insulated from the global financial crisis”, which he attributed to “excessive forward trading in commodities”, “the Indian economy has the strength to isolate itself from it, at least to a certain extent. Our banks have not collapsed and none of our financial institutions have a problem.”

When the collapse of the capital market was pointed out to him, he shot back: “I’ve always held that they often behave like glorified casinos.”

The Minister added that at the next PBD to be held in Chennai in January 2009, over 1,500 members of the Indian diaspora were expected to participate.

More Stories on : NRIs | Education | Events

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line