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Transcript of Special Briefing by Secretary (CPV & OIA) on Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (January 05, 2023)

India - Ministry of External Affairs

January 05, 2023

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: A very good afternoon to all of you. Thank you for joining us, effectively the first briefing of the new year. We're very privileged to begin on a special briefing that we are organizing for the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, 2023 that will take place in Indore from this weekend. To give us a sense of this big event that is happening after two years, actually, after four years in a physical format, we have with us Secretary Sir, Secretary (CPV and OIA), Dr. Ausaf Sayeed. Also joining us here, Additional Secretary (LAC), Shri G.V. Srinivas. We have some senior delegations coming from the Latin American region and you get a sense from that. I would now hand over the floor to Sir, for some opening remarks and then we'll take a few questions depending on your interest. Sir.

Dr. Ausaf Sayeed, Secretary (CPV & OIA): Good Afternoon and thank you very much for coming for this briefing which I'll focus on the forthcoming 17th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, as my colleague Arindam Bagchi said, is going to be held from 8th to 10th January in Indore, Madhya Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh is the partner state for this year's PBD. As you know that since 2017, the PBD conventions are being held once in two years and last PBD, actually owing to COVID, was in a virtual format. But this year, after four years' gap, we are having a physical format there. PBD 2023 has also very special significance, as 2023 as you know, marks the 75 years of India's independence and we have been celebrating this as 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav' very enthusiastically. And this will also be the first PBD convention in the 'Amrit Kaal', as we entered the 'Amrit Kaal'. So, in keeping with Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi's vision of building an Atmanirbhar Bharat over the next 25 years as we look up to India at 2047, we feel that the diaspora will play a very important role in the developmental trajectory of India and thus the PBD theme this year has been the 'Diaspora: Reliable partners for India's progress in Amrit Kaal', 'Pravasi: Amrit Kaal mein Bharat ki Pragati ke Vishwasniy Bhagidaar'. So, we have received enthusiastic response from diaspora for this convention with more than 3,500 registrations from nearly 70 different countries.

The formal inauguration of the PBD convention will be done by Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji on January 9th. We have Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali, President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, who will be the Chief Guest and Mr. Chandrikapersad Santokhi, President of the Republic of Suriname will be the Special Guest of Honour. We have Ministerial level delegations from Mauritius, Malaysia, Panama, and big delegations of diaspora from several countries, including again Mauritius, UAE, USA, Qatar and Oman, besides of course, other countries. We have five plenary sessions planned in the PBD on the themes of Youth, Healthcare, Soft power, Indian workforce and Woman. Four of these sessions would be headed by Cabinet Ministers and again, this is the very first time that we have Cabinet Ministers for various sessions, and the panellists are drawn from different walks of life. Additionally, we have a town hall plan on the G20 where the G20 Sherpa Shri Amitabh Kant as well as G20 Coordinator, Shri Harsh Vardhan Singla will give a presentation on the India's G20 Presidency.

Just to give you a sense of what the programs are for the three days, so the first day will be the Youth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas as is customary, we begin with that, which is being organised by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and in partnership with MEA. Shri Anurag Thakur, Honourable Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports will deliver the opening remarks and Honourable EAM, Dr. S. Jaishankar will deliver the inaugural address. We have Ms. Zaneta Mascarenhas, Member of Parliament of Australia as the Guest of Honour and then she will deliver a special address. We will also have the participation of Honourable CM of Madhya Pradesh, Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan. A special plenary on this day is also being held on the 'Role of Diaspora Youth in Innovations and New Technologies'. And the same afternoon, there will be a showcasing of the Government of Madhya Pradesh in the form of the potential in tourism, trade, investments in different sectors such as textiles & garments, IT & IT enabled services, healthcare, pharma, food processing and start-ups. The Government of Madhya Pradesh is also actually doing the Global Investor Summit immediately after the PBD. There will also be an opportunity provided to the participants to get a feel of the cultural heritage of Madhya Pradesh. There will be visits to Mahakal Corridor in Ujjain. There will also be visits to different places in Indore such as Mandu and other places which are there.

We come to day two which is the Inaugural Day which as I said, Prime Minister will inaugurate. We will have two plenary sessions on that day. One session will be on the 'Role of Indian Diaspora in promoting Indian Healthcare Ecosystem in Amrit kaal', this would be chaired by Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, Honourable Minister for Health and Family Welfare. In this session, we will have the Foreign Minister of Panama, Ms. Janaina Tewaney Mencomo, who will be one of the panellists. This will be followed by a plenary session on 'Leveraging the soft power of India, Goodwill through craft, cuisine and creativity', this will be chaired by Ms. Meenakashi Lekhi, Honourable Minister of State for External Affairs and Culture. And in this session, we expect the participation of Honourable Minister of Arts and Culture from Mauritius, Mr. Avinash Teeluck, then there will be on that day bilateral meetings between our Prime Minister and the visiting Presidents of Guyana and Suriname. A cultural program will also be organized by ICCR.

On the last day, which is the valedictory day, we begin the day again with two plenary sessions. So, one session will be on the 'Enabling global mobility of Indian workforce - Role of Indian diaspora'. This will be chaired by Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Honourable Minister of Education, Skill Development & Entrepreneurship. In this session also, we have Ms. Fazila Jeewa-Daureeawoo, Minister of Social Integration, Social Security and National Solidarity of Mauritius as one of the panellists. We also will have another panel discussion on 'Harnessing the potential of woman Diaspora entrepreneurs towards an inclusive approach to nation building', which will be chaired by Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, Honourable Minister of Finance. This will be of course, followed by the valedictory session during which our Honourable Rashtrapati Ji would confer the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards on 27 awardees and would also deliver the valedictory address. We expect the participation of Honourable External Affairs Minister, the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh as well as Honourable Minister of Civil Aviation, Shri Jyotiraditya Scindia in the valedictory session. So this would be it. And we have of course, as I said, there will be 27 Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards which will be conferred. For the first time, we are also having the awardees from countries which have so far not received the awards such as Brazil, Croatia, Denmark, Uzbekistan, Republic of Congo and South Sudan.

The awards reflect wider geographic representation. Generally, we have stuck on to the principle of one award per country so that's why you see many countries. There are 24 male recipients and three female recipients. In terms of regions, we have four from Africa, eight from Americas, eight from Asia & Oceania, six from Europe and one from Gulf. And various states are represented, AP-One, Bihar-two, Chhattisgarh-one, Delhi-two, Gujarat-three, J&K-one, Kerala-three, Maharashtra-two, Punjab-two, Rajasthan-two, Tamil Nadu-three and UP-five. So, basically this is in a sense the essence of 17th PBD. I'll be very happy if you have any particular questions to ask or anything which you would like me to highlight. Thank you.

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Thank you very much sir. Before I open the floor for questions, just wanted to mention, please follow our website for this, we will try to bring you updates, the MEA social media handles also as well as the YouTube which we will try to bring you some sessions which can be put on live, perhaps, as much as possible. Accreditation has already happened for the event and I know some of you would be going to Indore. We also have a lot of people from abroad who have joined the media, who are already there. So we look forward to following up on this. For the moment if there are some questions and I'll take that. I saw your hand first. We'll start with that. Please introduce yourself.

Akhilesh Suman: I am Akhilesh Suman from Sansad TV. Can we know that what is the basis on which this Pravasi Bharatiya Samman is being given to different persons from different countries?

Ayushi: Sir, Ayushi from ANI. Sir you mentioned about the plenary session on mobility. Will there be discussion on the issue of simplifying immigration rules as well?

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Sorry, whose immigration rules? Whose, Indians or foreign?

Ayushi: Indians and foreign both.

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Let's be clear. What is the problem that you have with the Indian immigration rules?

Ayushi: Sir there are lots of problems that people face while emigrating. So, yesterday also in the curtain raiser, sir said that government is trying to simplifying the rules.

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Emigrating.

Ayushi: Yes, emigrating.

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Okay. There was one more question. Yeah, Sidhant go ahead.

Sidhant: Sir, Sidhant from WION. Focus on Caribbeans, two leaders, Presidents from Suriname and Guyana, any key thought process behind inviting leaders from Caribbean. And also, Europe has three Indian origin leaders now. Any virtual addresses by them now? We have Rishi Sunak, Irish leadership, and of course Portuguese as well.

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Sir, we will take this round and if there are some more questions, we'll take later. Sir, to you.

Dr. Ausaf Sayeed, Secretary (CPV & OIA): Akhilesh your question, you see the criteria for Pravasi Samman Awards is very clear and laid out and since the inception of the awards, this is basically one for the Pravasi individuals who have done very well first of all in their own fields, respective fields, whatever the fields may be. It could be education, it could be art & culture, it could be business, science & technology, also for contribution in India and contribution in their countries and also their services to the communities where they are residing. So, this is the broad principle, which has been followed since the inception of the Awards in 2003 and the same principle has been followed in these Awards also.

You have asked questions on migration & mobility. Of course, this is an important subject, I do not know whether this will be specifically addressed during the PBD but this is more of the initiative of the Government of India, as I said, in yesterday's curtain raiser that the Government of India is very keen to streamline the emigration processes, and also to create new mobility pathways for our individuals, so that we could provide newer opportunities for them to look for jobs, and also to redefine the role of emigration officers from regulators to more as facilitators now. So that is what will be the essence when we come up with the new emigration bill, and this is also the thought process when we are signing the migration & mobility partnership agreements with various countries. So this is it. On the Caribbean, maybe he'd like to add something. I'll pass it on to G.V. Srinivas.

Shri. G.V. Srinivas, Additional Secretary (LAC): Sir, as the Additional Secretary of Latin America & the Caribbean, I can only be happy that two of the leaders, from the Guyanese side and the Suriname side, will be coming and participating in the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas and the reason behind inviting these two leaders is pretty obvious. Guyana has 40% of the Indian origin people in the country, and they have elected an Indian origin man as the President. Similarly, in Suriname, 27%, but it is the majority Indian origin population that Suriname has. As we celebrate India's diaspora connect as a part of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, it was befitting that we invited these two leaders. President of Guyana is coming as the Chief Guest at the invitation of Prime Minister. President of Suriname is coming as a Special Guest of Honour. Just one point which I will elaborate on what Secretary just mentioned, is that the last session was virtual one in which the Chief Guest was then Surinamese President, who obviously could not come here in person, and we invited and fortunately, he is able to come as part of this session. And to take the story beyond that, we also have a Panamanian Foreign Minister, also participating at the invitation of External Affairs Minister. So, I think this is underlining the connect which we have with Latin America with the diaspora being our main conduit of relationship in this part of the world.

Dr. Ausaf Sayeed, Secretary (CPV & OIA): I just want to add here that, you see, yesterday in one of the sessions, one of the speakers were saying that, when we have Indian diaspora 32 million in all with 18.68 million as the Persons of Indian Origin, we don't make a distinction between diaspora and diaspora. So, one of the panellists was saying, do we really connect with diaspora which is spread far off, and especially in Caribbean? So, this itself is a reflection that we do connect and connect very deeply. The fact that we have so many people from that region in this particular PBD is a reflection and answers to that.

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Thank you sir.

Huma Siddiqui: Sir, I'm Huma Siddiqui from The Financial Express. Just wanted to know how many diaspora are coming from the Latin American region? And what would be the agenda of talks when Prime Minister meets with the President of Guyana?

Kallol: My question is regarding one of the awardees, Darshan Singh Dhaliwal. He is a billionaire and he was the person who was actually sent back from the airport in 2021 October for his support to the farmers' protest. My question is what really happened in the last one year that today he's being honoured? I mean, he was actually sent back from the immigration counter. So what has he done in the last one and half years that you are deciding to honour him?

Meghna: Sir, I'm Meghna from DD News. Sir on the first day, Pravasi youth coming, any special sector or any special youngsters being focused on coming in and attending session? if anything specific, you can elaborate on.

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: If there are no further questions, we'll close with that. Sir, I will hand over the floor to you.

Dr. Ausaf Sayeed, Secretary (CPV & OIA): On the question of the topics for the bilateral, this thing, I think the focus would be on energy. You know that our own energy demands are expected to go up from 4.8 million barrels per day in 2021 to almost 11.1 million barrels per day as we look decades later. So, Indian companies are already importing crude worth about US dollars 1.5 million from Guyana. So, energy is definitely one subject which we'd like to build upon. Agriculture, ICT, migration & mobility is again one of the things, as these are the important subjects, food processing, infrastructure, these are some of the topics, you know, generally I'm saying, not very, very specific going into depth, but broadly these are the topics which I think we will be focusing, which the leadership will be focusing on this.

Coming to how many from, we have not compiled exactly from Caribbean. We do have individual country wise, but maybe we will provide you the exact number how many, which are coming.

As I said at the beginning, the Awards are given on particular criteria, which my friend here asked from Sansad TV and the same criteria was also adopted when selecting Shri Darshan Singh Dhaliwal for his own contribution and in the criteria which has been mentioned. So, nothing more should be attributed to it than this.

Then the third question, you see the whole idea is that, when we are saying that the diaspora would play a very important role as India is looking ahead, you know, at 2047. So, the whole policy is to mainstream the diaspora for our national growth and development. So, engaging the youth is an important component, because you know, that India has the biggest youthful population and the youth has been contributing meaningfully through technological innovations in various fields and particularly in IT, start-ups and many other things, they have very innovatively made a name for themselves, not only in India, but also in their countries of origin. So, what is the thought process is that today's youth you know, in the next 25 years, they would be reaching their peak of their careers and they would be in very important positions either in their own careers or in the decision making. So, it is important that we engage with them. So, there are no particular sectors defined, but definitely our idea is to engage with them across the board in various things and explore ways and means, how we can engage the diaspora youth in nation building, and how we can assist them in this further process, which we are very keen that India focuses on the diaspora.

Special invitee, I did mention to you that the Guest of Honour is Ms. Zaneta Mascarenhas. She is a Member of Parliament from Australia. So, she is special invitee and she will do the special address. Ministry of External Affairs conducts this Know India program. This is a very dedicated specific program directed at the diaspora youth. So, this time we have two programs which are running parallelly, 40 people have gone to Karnataka, 40 youth who are currently doing the program in Madhya Pradesh. So these 80 diaspora youths would also be the special invitees for the youth PBD.

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Thank you very much, sir. Thank you for your briefing. May I also thank Shri G.V. Srinivas, Additional Secretary (LAC) for being present. Thank you all for joining us and look forward to engaging with you as the PBD unfolds over the next few days. Good afternoon, please stay tuned. We'll just continue with our weekly briefing after this.