Prime Minister of India - Dr. Manmohan Singh

Second meeting of the PM's Global Advisory Council of Overseas Indians

The Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh chaired the second meeting of the Prime Minister's Global Advisory Council of Overseas Indians on 7 January, 2011. Fourteen eminent overseas Indians from across the world attended the meeting. The External Affairs Minister, Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs and senior officials also attended the meeting.

The members of the Council appreciated the efforts made by the Government of India to carry forward various suggestions emerging from the first meeting of the Council and inter-sessional deliberations by the Council members. To enable overseas Indian community to contribute effectively to India's development challenges, Members offered many suggestions such as to establish structured engagement with young overseas Indians, promoting open architecture for collaboration in higher education, flexible higher education system, greater interface between Government R&D laboratories and university system for technological development and innovation, global outreach of India's soft power, technology based mechanism for facilitating philanthropy work, welfare of migrant workers, greater outreach and use of alumni networks abroad.

The Prime Minister thanked all the Council members for a very rich and varied discussion and bringing new perspectives to tackle well-known challenges facing India. The concerns voiced by Council members of inclusiveness, quality of governance, access to education and healthcare in India are engaging the attention of the Government. There are enormous opportunities available in India, and we need to revitalize the spirit of adventure and entrepreneurship latent in our system by suitable implementation mechanisms. The discussion in the Council was essay in mutual comprehension and he assured that there would be a better representative group of Ministers at the next meeting of the Council to interact with the members. The Prime Minister thanked all the members for taking time out from their busy schedule and sharing their vast experience and wisdom on ways to engage overseas Indian community to India's development efforts. He assured that the Government will work on suggestions made by Council members in the coming months.