MINISTER OF OVERSEAS INDIAN AFFAIRS (VAYALAR RAVI)
(a) to
(i): A statement is laid on the Table of the House.
Statement referred to in reply to Lok Sabha Starred Question No.79
to be answered on 22nd February 2006.
(a&b): The fourth Pravasi Bharitya Divas was organized from 7th - 9th
January, 2006 at Hyderabad. Pravasi Bharatiya Divas - 2006 was inaugurated
by the Hon`ble Prime Minister of India and culminated in the conferment of
the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards by Rashtrapatiji. In the 3 day conference
there were 9 plenary sessions, 6 parallel sessions, 3 panel discussions and 2 round
table discussions, covering a wide range of issues including Diaspora partnership
in Health care, Remittance Services, Knowledge Network, Culture, Overseas employment,
Diaspora Youth and Gender issues, Opportunities in Education, Assisted living, Diaspora
Philanthropy, Diaspora and political discourse, Communal Harmony and Secularism etc.
A separate interactive session was held on the second day with ten participating State
governments followed by parallel sessions conducted by the State governments. Six
states namely Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala and Maharashtra
were represented by the Chief Ministers, while Karnataka, Tamilnadu and Rajasthan were
represented by the Industry Ministers and West Bengal by the Chief Secretary.
(c&d): As a follow up to PM`s advice, the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs
has since written to the Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir,
Maharashtra, Gujarat and Bihar to establish a separate department/cell as done
by Kerala to serve as a single point contact for Overseas Indians. All the above
State governments had enthusiastically taken part in PBD `06 both in the Plenary
as well as in the one-to-one sessions.
(e&f): A proposal for giving Voting rights to Non-Resident Indians has already
been approved by the Cabinet. It is expected that a Bill in this regard will be introduced
in the current session of the Parliament.A more liberal Pravasi Bharatiya Bima Yojana-2006
for the benefit of the Overseas Indian Workers was launched by the Government at PBD,
Hyderabad and came into force from 1st February, 2006. Under the upgraded Scheme, the
emigrant workers will now get a minimum insurance cover of Rs.5 lakhs and the policy will
be for the entire period of employment contract. An additional cover of Rs.25,000/- for the
legal expenses incurred by the emigrants in connection with their employment has also
been included minimum insurance cover of Rs 5 lakhs and the policy will for the entire
period of employment contract. Several leading insurance companies of India have shown
interest in the Scheme. This will bring down the insurance premium substantially.
(g): An easy to use Integrated Electronic Remittance facility was launched during the
Pravasi Bharaitya Divas - 2006 during the Session on `Remittance Services` with Finance
Minister Shri P. Chidambaram. This new facility offered by the UTI Bank in association
with Doha Bank initially combines the virtues of speed, economy and convenience and
is expected to be fully operational from the next financial year.
(h&i): A proposal entitled `e-governance solution for emigration` received from the
Semiconductor Complex Ltd.(SCL), Punjab - a Government of India enterprise - is
under consideration of the Government. The said proposal envisages establishing
a complete IT infrastructure at the Office of Protector General of Emigrants and eight
field offices of the Protector of Emigrants and providing a tamper proof `Smart Card`
based ID photo cards to emigrants which shall have adequate data storage capacity
to carry emigrants` personal information, visa particulars, recruiting agent`s details,
POE office approval reference, insurance details, etc..
