But where is the money?
That is not my job! There are other departments like finance and commerce that are working towards that goal. Indians living in Europe have been sending money to build schools and colleges. People from the Gulf have been investing in their own states -- you can see the results in South Indian states.
They claim that about 10 percent of the 2.6 million Indians in America are millionaires. If this is true, I said in a speech at a business meeting in America, then these millionaires must invest in India.
Our country has been getting some $26 billion in the form of remittances from abroad, but investment is quite low. I think it is just 6 percent of the total investment that is coming to India. The people living abroad are good people. They advise us on how to rule India, but their investment is quite low.
What are the major hurdles?
As I pointed out, I am not responsible for directly canvassing for investment, but I have created an institution called Overseas Indian Facilitation Centre. It is a single-window information hub where you can get all the information related to investing in India.
What is the response to the Person of Indian Origin card?
We have issued 350,000 Overseas Citizen of India cards and 100,000 PIO cards so far, but obviously these numbers are not enough. The OCI card in particular, we should be issuing more but the process is taking some time. In issuing PIO cards, the problem that arises is the cut-off dates of persons applying for it.
We need records, but people in the Caribbean countries and some other places say they have no records. Indians in America have no such problem, so clearance for them is faster. We are discussing how to resolve this difficulty, and I should mention that the applications are cleared by the home ministry. Officers sit on the files, and it takes time.
But you must understand that this is a very privileged card; one has to be careful in giving them out. In a sense it is like America's green card. You can come into and go out of India at will if you have one; you can stay here for as long as you like. Since these are privileges that among other things take you outside the realm of routine checks, the government has to be careful in vetting the credentials of the applicants, and that is one reason for the slow pace.
Image: A delegate dances with a member of choreograher Shiamak Davar's troupe at the 2007 Pravasi Bharatiya Divas. Photograph: Paresh Gandhi
Also see: 5 to receive GOPIO's community awards in Chennai
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