By KUNA
New Delhi : Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh Tuesday inaugurated the Sixth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) or Non-Resident Indian (NRI) meet at Delhi and reiterated his Governments commitment to promote interests of NRIs across the world. He announced setting up of a Prime Ministers Global Advisory Council of people of Indian Origin to serve as a high level platform to draw upon the experience and knowledge of the best Indian minds wherever they may be based. The Prime Minister also announced launching of an Overseas Workers Resource Centre which will provide relevant information and assistance to potential migrant workers, and will also operate a multi-lingual help line for grievance redressal and interventions for overseas workers in distress. Highlighting the initiatives taken by the Government to sustain a mutually rewarding relationship between India and its Diaspora, India’s Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs, Vayalar Ravi said that the Government had issued over two hundred thousand Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) cards during last two years and a much larger number of overseas Indians would be provided these cards in the ensuing year. “The Indian Government is also working on extending a wider range of benefits to OCI cardholders,” he added. The Minister said that efforts were being made to provide the opportunity to the overseas Indian professionals for working in the country, the inter-ministerial consultations for this purpose have been completed and implementation process will start very soon. In a bid to provide secured working opportunities abroad and safeguard interests of persons of Indian origin, Ravi said that the India Government was working on bilateral agreements with number of European countries. Besides this, Memorandum of Understanding were being stressed with the countries where protection of the labour laws was not available to safeguard the interests of the persons working in informal sectors, the Minister informed. He expressed hope that the conference would provide the opportunity to NRIs to contribute to the development of the country in their own way. Inaugural session was also addressed by Dr. Navin Ramagoolam, Prime Minister of Mauritius and Shiela Dixit, Chief Minister of Delhi. It was followed by the plenary sessions focused on the issue of social development, role of Diaspora Philanthropy, specially the potential of micro-credit in empowerment of rural women. The themes of the two-day conference reflect the national priorities, set out in India’s 11th Five Year Plan (2007-12).