Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, renowned economist CK Prahalad, Karan Billimoria, Apoorva Bagri, global chairman of TiE and Sugata Bose, Gardiner professor of history at Harvard, are all heading to India in January as part of the fifth annual Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas.
They will be addressing the annual non-resident Indian jamboree to be held in New Delhi during January 7-9.
According to Tarun Das, chief mentor of the Confederation of Indian Industry, which is partnering the ministry of overseas Indian affairs for the event, the eminent thinkers have been invited in keeping with the new theme for the Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas, that of looking at the bottom half of the prosperity pyramid.
"For the first time since the inception of Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas, we are not asking the NRIs for their money. Instead, we are asking if they will be willing to give their time and skills in connecting to the social challenges being faced by our country," he said.
"We will have sessions on education, health, and gender issues where inputs will be sought and connections made with NRIs on these issues. That is why these 'thought leaders' have been specially invited," said Das.
At least 10 chief ministers of various Indian states have confirmed that they will be available for the event and they too have been told to keep to the theme and "not to ask for money but skills" from the NRI community.
Das also revealed that at least 50 Indian universities had got in touch with the CII to connect with NRIs. "They want Indians teaching abroad to contribute to Indian universities in terms of time and academic effort," said Das.
The CII, which is partnering the government for the event for the first time, said the effort would be to address all the previous years' shortcomings.
"We found through our own surveys that the issues important to the Indian diaspora vary from country to country,"" said Das. "We will therefore have different sessions for different countries."
