A new independent Ministry, by the name of Ministry of Overseas
Indian Affairs, was created in May 2004, with a view to providing
a mechanism that obviates the need for Indian Diaspora to deal
with a multiplicity of organisations and departments in their
interaction with India.
The Emigration Division of the Ministry of Labour and Employment
was attached to the new Ministry in December 2004. The NRI division
of the MEA provides support to the MOIA. The creation of the Ministry
acknowledges that the welfare of Overseas Indians needs mainstream
attention.
The Ministry is organised into four functional areas, viz.
Diaspora Services, Employment Services, Financial
Services and Social Services Divisions. A small team of officers
is working in the Ministry in a de-layered and multi-task mode
leveraging the power of partnership/outsourcing.
Overseas Citizenship
of India (OCI) Scheme
Overseas
Citizenship of India Scheme has been made operational from December
2, 2005. OCI has been introduced by statute as a new
category of citizenship to facilitate life-long visa, free travel
to India and certain economic, educational and cultural benefits.
This is not to be construed as ‘dual citizenship’ since it does
not confer political rights. Any Overseas Indian applicant,
who is comfortable with his present citizenship status in the
country of his residence, can apply for OCI. The Prime Minister
formally handed over the first two OCI Cards at the 4th Pravasi
Bharatiya Divas at Hyderabad on January 7, 2006.
Till April
30, 2006, 13,313 OCI documents have been dispatched.
Pravasi Bharatiya Bima Yojana, 2006
Pravasi Bhartiya
Bima Yojana (PBBY-2003),
which was notified on November 13, 2003 as a compulsory Insurance
Scheme for the emigrants going abroad for employment, has now
been upgraded as the Pravasi Bhartiya Bima Yojana, 2006 (PBBY-2006)
to provide broader coverage to the emigrant workers. The PBBY,
2006 has been notified on January 25, 2006, and it has come into
effect from February 1, 2006.
As per provisions
of the new Scheme, the emigrant workers will now get a minimum
insurance cover of Rs. 5 lakh (instead of Rs. 2 lakh) 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.
Beneficiaries
of Pravasi Bharatiya Bima
Yojana (PBBY) 2003 can also opt for Pravasi Bhartiya Bima Yojana,
2006
E-Remittance Gateway
for NRIs launched
Though there
are several remittance facilities available in the market, overseas
Indians have limited choice of either using the fast but expensive
facility or the economic but relatively slow facility to remit
money back home. Keeping this in view, the Ministry decided to
partner with the UTI bank to develop an integrated, universal,
electronic remittance gateway that combines the virtues of economy,
speed and convenience. This portal will also extend advisory services
on investment, taxation and real estate to potential and interested
overseas Indians.
At Pravasi
Bharatiya Divas-2006, the UTI Bank demonstrated this e-remittance
gateway, which would enable overseas Indians to remit money to
India to designated accounts in any of the 14,500 bank branches,
operating on Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) network of the
RBI. The Finance Minister at the PBD did the pilot launch of this
facility. The facility is operational between Doha and India at
present.
During January-April, 2006, over 3,250
remittances totaling about Rs 27 crore have been made. The advisory
services are fully operational since April 2006, while the remittance
gateway will be fully operational by July 2006.
In 2002, the flow of international
remittances to developing countries stood at $80 billion per year,
a figure which was much higher than total official aid flows to
the developing world (World Bank, 2003). A World Bank report ‘Global
Economic Prospects’ - puts remittances of Non-Resident Indians
(NRIs) to India at around US $ 23.7 billion in the last year.
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