Parliamentarians from Indian Diaspora join Webinar hosted by MP Sujeet Kumar

TNI Bureau:  The Office of Rajya Sabha MP Sujeet Kumar organized a global webinar on “Dialogue with Parliamentarians from Indian Diaspora” to create a unique platform for sharing of experience, ideas and aspirations among the leaders in Indian Diaspora.

The leaders discussed several ways on how India and her Diaspora are inseparably connected and how they can be a great global force to advocate and achieve sustainable change in all areas of bilateral and multilateral ties. Several people from the Indian Diaspora, Development Practitioners, students and faculties from different universities joined the webinar and participated in the discussion.

Key Highlights

1. With nearly 30 Million NRIs & PIOs, the Indian Diaspora is the largest in the world.
2. They send 80 billion USD to India as remittances, highest in the world by any Diaspora.
3. Parliamentarians from Mauritius, Fiji, Kenya, Australia and India shared their leadership experience.
4. Diaspora leadership and governments need to work to go beyond the Three Cs of ties- Commonwealth, Cricket, & Curry
5. Post-Covid bilateral ties can sustainably focus onagriculture, technology, health, tourism and skills.
6. Host MP ShriSujeet Kumar to share the summary of the dialogues with the MEA Parliamentary Committee, Govt of India.
7. All Diaspora MPs expressed a tremendous sense of pride in their Indianness- Indian roots, culture, identity and way of life.
8. Diaspora MPs spoke of the need to forge deeper friendship amongst themselves& need for an informal Networking platform.
9. Diaspora MPs stressed and resolved to strengthen the relationship of their nation and Government with India, irrespective of the political party they belonged to.

MP KaushaliyaVaghela from Australia, MP Prof. Biman C. Prasad from Republic of Fiji, MP Dr. SwarupRanjan Mishra from Kenya, MP NaveenaRamyad, MP Subhasnee Luchmun Roy and MP Mr. Mahend Gungapersad from Mauritius graced the webinar.

The moderator Prof Kamala Kanta Dash briefly introduced the Global Development Dialogue (GDD) and Sujeet Kumar welcomed the distinguished guests and articulated the vision behind GDD and the rationale behind the dialogue among Diaspora leaders.

MP Dr. SwarupRanjan Mishra shared his success story alongwith his India roots. He is of the opinion that Kenya and India, especially the Indian state of Odisha, share a lot of similarities and various avenues can be explored by both the countries in fields of Agriculture, Tourism, Mines, Minerals exploration, Oil & Natural Gas etc. Furthermore, he added that India being the vaccine hub of India, it can look forward to vaccinate 1.4 billion people of Africa.

MP NaveenaRamyadspoke about Mauritius-India Relationship. She believes that India can help in boosting agriculture production in Mauritius. India can also help in skill development, transfer of agriculture knowledge and development of educational, biomedical and pharmaceutical industries, transfer of AI knowledge etc. She feels that more such cultural and political exchanges should happen between India and Mauritius.

MP Prof. Biman C. Prasad said that apart from financial ties, Fiji should have more democratic, academia and cultural engagements with the Government of India. There should be more forums in place where there can be mutual sharing of ideas and learning from other Diaspora Communities.

MP Kaushaliya Vaghela shared her success story and her connection with India. As an MP, she works with women, youth&vulnerable population. She is of the view that mutual exchange of ideas and collaboration between Indian & Diaspora MPs is the need of the hour. She also believes that educational exchange, Technology & AI will play a vital role in strengthening the relationship between two countries.

MP MahendGungapersad expressedgratefulness towards the people of India and highlighted the generosity of India for helping in distressful times of island nations. He feels that there is a need to come together especially the Indian Diaspora to strengthen relations between Mauritius and India.  He said that health is a primary concern for all and inoperable patients in Mauritius should get access in hospitals of India. Also, Marine security is another concern where Indian Government can help in terms of training and providing necessary security expertise.

MP Subhasnee Luchmun Roy spoke about her challenging political journey in Mauritius and how India has always helped Mauritius in the times of need and it’s a blessing for Mauritius to have India as its partner. She said that the strengthening of culture is the need of the hour. There should be initiatives towards preservation of our rich heritage and culture.