By TCN News,
New Delhi: Prime Minister’s Global Advisory Council of Overseas Indians consisting of sixteen eminent overseas Indians representing different disciplines from across the world met today in New Delhi.
Addressing the Council Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh said that never before Government of India had brought together on one platform such an eminent group with the wealth of knowledge, experience and achievements as the Members of the Global Advisory Council. Prime Minister observed that he was confident that India would quickly return to sustained high growth path of 9-10 percent.
The Members of the Council appreciated the initiative of Prime Minister for setting up the Council, and providing a platform for overseas Indian community to share their experience and knowledge for the socio-economic development of India. Members were of the unanimous view that India and its overseas community can and should build a strong, strategic and mutually beneficial partnership. Members shared their views on various aspects such as contributing to social and philanthropic work, education and skill development, collaborating work with the academic and scientific community, developing institutions of excellence, facilitating investments into India, and initiatives for facilitating young overseas Indians to rediscover their roots.
Prime Minister welcomed the ideas and suggestions made by Members of the Council and said that the Government would give most careful consideration to all the suggestions made by the Council members. The External Affairs Minister, Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs and senior officials also participated in the discussions.
Prime Minister’s Global Advisory Council of Overseas Indians was constituted in pursuance of the announcement made by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on the occasion of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in January 2008 in New Delhi. The Council is based on the idea that the highly skilled overseas Indian community represents a vast untapped resource that can be harnessed as an input into national development processes in India.
The Prime Minister chairs the Council. Its members include External Affairs Minister, Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs, senior designated officials from the Government of India, and prominent overseas Indians who have accepted the Prime Minister’s invitation to be members.
Some of the Members of the Council are:
Lord Khalid Hameed was the executive director & chief executive officer of the Cromwell Hospital in London. He hails from Lucknow, India. He chairs the Commonwealth Youth Exchange Council. He is a Board member of the British Muslim Research Centre, and also the Ethnic Minorities Foundation. He is an executive member of the Maimonides Foundation and a trustee of the Little Foundation. Dr Hameed supports various charities and was awarded the Sternberg Award of 2005 for his contribution to further Christian-Muslim-Jewish Relations.
Yusuf Ali M.A. is a prominent NRI businessman and managing director of Emke Group. Emke is best known in the Gulf through a chain of hypermarkets, supermarkets and department stores, which serve the widest segments of multi-ethnic residents in the region.
Lakshmi Mittal is an Indian industrialist based in the United Kingdom. He is the fourth richest man in the world with a net worth of around $45 billion. He was born in Sadulpur village, in the Churu district of Rajasthan and he resides in Kensington, London. He is the chairman and CEO of ArcelorMittal (founder of Mittal before merger with Arcelor) and also serves as a non-executive director of Goldman Sachs, EADS and ICICI Bank.
Bhikhu Chhotalal Parekh was born in 1935 and was raised to the peerage as Baron Parekh of Kingston upon Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire in 2000. His career achievements include being a political tutor at the London School of Economics, a politics lecturer at Glasgow University, and Professor of Political Theory at University of Baroda. Lord Parekh is a member of the Select Committee on Human Rights and is the founding member and past president of the research committee on political philosophy of International Political Science Association.