Prime Ministers Global advisory council and data bank of Indians abroad announced

To engage India with the Indian diaspora

July 31, 2009

The Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has decided to set up a high level panel called the Global Advisory Council which will include the best Indian brains abroad. The 23 member Council chaired by the Prime Minister would develop an inclusive agenda for engagement between India and the top Indian brains abroad. Economist Amartiya Sen, business tycoon L.N. Mittal and Pepsico CEP Indra Nooyi are among the members of the Council. Others include Citi group CEO Vikram Pandit, NRI entrepreneur Karan Bilimoria, Economist Jagdeesh Bhagavati and technologist/educationist Sam Pitroda.

External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna will also be its member. Announcing this in the Lok Sabha, Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs, Vayalar Ravi, who will also be the member of the Council said, the Council would consider methods to access the skills and knowledge of the Indian Diaspora to meet the country's development goals and facilitate investment by overseas Indian in the country.

The Council, Ravi said, will serve as a platform for the Prime Minister to draw up on the experience, knowledge and wisdom of the best Indian minds wherever they may be based.

Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) has also launched an ambitious project to create a data bank of all those going abroad to ensure their well-being, a move triggered by incidents of attacks on Indians abroad. The project, the first of its kind, was taken up after the ministry realized that there was no statistics available with the government to keep track of its citizens abroad to ensure their well-being and safety in view of the recent violent attacks on Indian students in Australia.

Starting initially with the students, the data bank will have all the details about them, such as the name of the city where they are residing name of the college/university they are studying at and place of their work. Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi said in an interview. The data bank is being created as a part of efforts to institutionalize mechanism for safety and well-being of the Indian students studying abroad. "The project is aimed at knowing how many students are going abroad in a year, where they are going and which are the institutions they are studying, among others," Mr. Ravi said. At present, the government does not have any proper data bank about students who go out of the country to pursue higher education.

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