The Hindu Business Line : Dynamic diaspora

The Singapore Prime Minister, Mr Lee Hsien Loong, toasted the two lakh strong Indian expat community in Singapore while inaugurating the second mini Pravasi Bharatiya Divas outside India, in Singapore on Friday. “One of the largest expatriate communities here, like the earlier waves of migrants, Indian expatriates have brought strong entrepreneurial spirit and energy. They have added different experiences and perspectives to our society and boosted our efforts to dev elop Singapore’s R&D and financial services”, he said. The second largest diaspora anywhere in the world, the Indian diaspora, according to the World Bank, sends back home $27 billion every year, the largest remittance of any country. In the Silicon Valley, ethnic Indian technopreneurs form a significant constituency. “Their success in the US has been a catalyst for India’s own success in the software industry; 19 of the top 20 Indian software businesses are founded or managed by the Indian diaspora,” Mr Lee Hsien Loong said. Even in the Asia-Pacific region, the Indian disaspora had helped to integrate India into the region and made a critical contribution to the Indian economy. The Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs, Mr Vayalar Ravi, said the real story of the 30 million overseas Indians in 110 countries “is truly the story of ordinary people with extraordinary courage and enterprise. It is a story of struggle and success.”

Dark clouds

Compared to the euphoria that complemented the first mini PBD outside Indian held in New York in September 2007, the second session in Singapore was a sombre, even though, optimistic, event that celebrated the dynamism and hard work of the Indian diaspora worldwide. As dark clouds of economic global meltdown begin their movement from the US and Europe towards the Asian region, there was recognition of the “difficult times” that lay ahead for Asia too. The Singa pore Prime Minister, Mr Lee Hsien Loong, said that when Singapore offered to host the PBD, “we did not know it would be held during such exciting times. The world is caught up in a financial storm and dark clouds fill our immediate horizon.” While he said the rough times are not likely to disappear soon, and Asia too would have to battle with difficulties over the next one year or more, Mr Vayalar Ravi talked about absence of regulation leading to “moral hazards” and blamed “excessive forward trading” for rocking the world’s leading capital markets. In India, a strong capital market regulator (SEBI) and a strong central bank would help tide over the global economic crisis, he added. As is customary these days, he also toasted the Indo-US civic nuclear deal and said “this historic milestone” would help India’s march in “becoming an economic powerhouse.”

Seven-hour flying time

Singapore rarely fails to market itself based on its strategic geographic location, and the Prime Minister, Mr Lee Hsien Loong, neatly captured this pithily when he said: “Our slogan is seven-hours flying time. Global businesses found it profitable to operate out of Singapore as geographically, we are at the heart of Asia, sitting astride major sea routes and air links. In seven hours or less you can reach Sydney, Shanghai or Mumbai.” On this advantage, “ we try to also make this a good place to work, live and play, and welcome talent from around the world to our shores.”

Rasheeda Bhagat
and M. Ramesh

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