The 17th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention will begin on 8 January 2023 in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, and the preparations are on in full swing. Held biennially to celebrate the achievements and contributions of the Indian diaspora globally, the main theme of the PBD Convention this year will be "Diaspora: Reliable Partners for India's progress in Amrit Kaal".
Plenary sessions on youth, workforce, women and the diaspora
The Convention has been divided into five Plenary Sessions over three days and will include cultural programmes celebrating the cultural heritage of India, with a focus on the host state of Madhya Pradesh. The cultural celebrations come on the heels of the ICCR felicitating foreign artists of Indian dance and music from countries as diverse as Malaysia and Iran in a talent recognition event which was the first of its kind. It was held in the last week of December 2022 in New Delhi. The selected artists from around 10 countries are also expected to perform at the PBD Convention in Indore. This will fit seamlessly with the theme of the third plenary session, which is ' Leveraging the soft power of India - Goodwill through craft, cuisine & creativity' on the 9th of January. The ICCR's programme is scheduled to conclude the events on the second day.
In keeping with the focus on Amrit Kaal, the events of the first day are grouped under ‘Youth Pravasi Divas’, and the first plenary session is on ‘Role of Diaspora Youth in Innovations and New Technologies’. In the time since the last PBD Convention which saw the emergence of names like Parag Agrawal and Arvind Krishna in the technology sector (along with the old names like Satya Nadella and Indra Nooyi), it is only natural that this Convention would kick off by considering the contributions to and the potential of the global technology sector for Indian youth, who also happen to be the largest youth demography in the world. It also remains to be seen whether the Youth Pravasi Divas addresses the plight of over 50,000 students enrolled in universities in China, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and the United States whose lives have been hampered first by the pandemic and then by the Russia-Ukraine war, forcing them to stare ahead at an uncertain future plagued by financial, professional and academic losses especially as Amit Ladh, the CEO of Sharda Group, will be honoured with The Pravasi Bharatiya Samman (Overseas Indian Honour/Award), the highest Indian award for Non-resident Indian and Overseas Citizen of India, to honour exceptional and meritorious contribution in their chosen field/profession. Ladh is a native of Mandela, Rajasthan and Sharda Group has its business corporate office in Bhilwara. According to a statement issued to Asian Voice by the CMD of Sharda Group, Anil Mansinghka, “#OperationGanga, an initiative led by Government of India in rescuing the Indian Students from Ukraine and helping them get back home safely via Poland in which Amit Lath of Sharda Group played an active role” contributed to his award. “Presently more than 25 million Indians are living abroad and it’s remarkable that out of few thousand nominations, 27 persons/organizations are selected by the high level committee,” the statement read.
The conclave will conclude with two plenary sessions on the third day, on ‘Enabling global mobility of Indian workforce – Role of Indian Diaspora’ and ‘Harnessing the potential of women diaspora entrepreneurs towards an inclusive approach to nation building’. These will be the fourth and fifth sessions respectively. These sessions promise to be especially interesting as it remains to be seen whether certain challenges in these areas, especially those faced by the Indian diasporic workforce, would be addressed in the sessions. It is a welcome move that global mobility of the Indian workforce in a post-pandemic world hit by recession and mass layoffs is prioritised in this event. But before delving into the challenges, a few words on the good bits of India in the global market.
Indian diaspora shines on the world stage
According to Hemin Bharucha, Country Director- India of London & Partners, which is London’s economic development agency and the Mayor of London’s office in India, London continues to be a top business destination for Indians and 18 new Indian companies have decided to expand to London this financial year. According to Bharucha, challenges like Brexit, the war between Russia and Ukraine, and the fall in the value of the pound sterling have actually worked in India’s favour which continues to attract easy investment in the face of a global recession affecting more developed countries. Bharucha’s claims are supported by the scheduled visit to India of Rajesh Agrawal, the re-elected Deputy Mayor of London for Business, who will lead a large delegation to cities across India in the month of February this year. Regarding his involvement in the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, Agrawal told Asian Voice, “Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is a great way to celebrate and strengthen the contribution of overseas Indians to India and to the world. I am very excited that I will be attending it this year as it will take place in Indore, the city of my birth. UK is home to over 1.5 million people of Indian origin and I am glad that I will see many of them in Indore next week.”
The Indian diaspora’s biggest cause of celebration most recently has been the election of Rishi Sunak as the Prime Minister of the UK at a time which saw the resignation of two consecutive Prime Ministers during an immense cost-of-living crisis and a climate of anti-immigrant sentiments. Even though Sunak identifies as British, he has himself acknowledged that the ties between India and the UK are more than that of trade. The Indian diaspora in the UK looks at his election as the PM as a way to a speedy resolution of the Free Trade Agreement that would be mutually beneficial for both countries. And for India, the FTA should ideally include some security blanket for contractual workers, especially in the technological sector.
India’s NHS woes in the UK
Coming to the not-so-good bits, the Indian diaspora contributes a lot to the National Health Service, which has been hit severely by the pandemic and has been suffering for a long time due to a huge number of vacancies and lack of government funding. Recently, 999 staffers went on the largest strike in 30 years, and junior doctors are contemplating following suit this month. It needs to be seen how the workers belonging to the Indian diaspora are dealing with the crises. This is especially important since over 32,000 workers of Indian origin are employed in the NHS, making it the largest country to contribute to the service outside the UK. The daily struggles of diaspora workers lower down the employment rung like those employed in construction, real estate and the hospitality business need to be taken up by those wishing to harness the potential of the Indian diaspora. Because beginning with the late twentieth century and now with the spread of second-generation immigrants in the UK, the idea of the diaspora should no longer be limited only to business. People of Indian origin have been contributing to politics, media, the arts, entertainment, science and medicine for decades now, reaching the top positions in each of these spheres. It should be seen that India too contributes to making the path easier for them in whichever way possible. This is all the more because, despite facing immense competition from other migrants of Asian descent like the Chinese and the Filipinos, remittances back home by the Indian diaspora constitute the largest amount of remittance by a diaspora group, at $87 billion.
It is only fair that these issues would be addressed at such an important platform, all the more because the blue-collar workforce not only has to compete with fellow migrant workers as mentioned above, but they also have to deal with prejudices. Suella Braverman recently commented that Indians were the largest group to overstay their visa, a claim refuted by both data from the Home Office, and by Lord Karan Bilimoria.
