Mr DNYANESHWAR MULAY

                         SECRETARY (OVERSEAS INDIAN AFFAIRS AND CPV)

                                   MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS, INDIA

Just days before the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas convention in Bengaluru in January 2017, Mr Dnyaneshwar Mulay, Secretary (OIA and CPV), Ministry of External Affairs, speaks to Editor and Publisher Sayantan Chakravarty on a range of issues regarding India’s engagement with the diaspora

We understand that the Overseas Indian Affairs (OIA) department of the Ministry of External Affairs has been holding meetings with prominent PIOs and NRIs from all over the world on an ongoing basis. What is outcome of these meetings, and how have they helped in strengthening the process of engagement with the Indian diaspora?

We call them monthly PBD sessions. These sessions are an outcome of the guidance that has been provided to us by Hon’ble External Affairs Minister (EAM) in order to revamp and reformat the PBD engagement. The idea is not only to have once-a-year or once-in-two-years events, but have an engagement on an ongoing basis. Since February 2016, we’ve had 10 monthly sessions. The sessions have been chaired by EAM and were built around a theme, and brainstorming took place around that for three to four hours. For each session between 25 and 30 domain experts were invited, they included experts from overseas as well as from within India. The themes covered a gamut of diaspora issues and activities. They included subjects like diaspora contribution to philanthropic activities, policies for overseas Indians in GCC and ECR countries, policies for overseas Indians in girmitiya countries, diaspora contributions, Indian students overseas, PIO and NRI students in India, holistic health, tourism, education and innovation. Following each monthly session, we sent out recommendations to concerned ministries, and we have received inputs from them. So eventually whatever has been accepted will become part of Government’s policies on overseas Indians. Overall, this is a well thought out process set in motion by EAM, and what we are implementing is novel and new. We have had participation from North and South America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South and South East Asia, and Africa. We have touched every part of the globe where the diaspora is present.