PM Modi: Worshippers of black money portraying note ban as anti-people

SOME “WORSHIPPERS of black money” were projecting the November 8 demonetisation exercise carried out by the Indian governmentasanti-people,prime Ministernarendramoditoldover 6,000 delegates from the Indian diasporaattheinaugurationofthe 14th edition of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas on Sunday.

“Friends, after coming here you may have heard about and seen our efforts to tackle corruption and black money. We have taken a massive step against corruption and black money. Corruption and black money gradually erodes our political system, country, society and governance. It is unfortunate that some worshippers of black money are projecting our efforts as anti-people,” the Prime Minister said in a speech in which he thanked the diaspora for backing the government’s efforts.

Following his visits to the USA, UK, Australia, South Africa, UAE, Qatar, Singapore, Fiji, China, Japan, South Korea, Kenya, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Malaysia, “there is new energy, keen desire and strong drive among the Indian diaspora to connect more extensively and deeply with India’s social and economic transformation,” the Prime Minister said.

“In foreign lands and communities across the globe, irrespective of the path they take, and the goals they pursue, the Indian diaspora represents the best of Indian culture, ethos and values. Their hard work, discipline, law-abiding and peaceloving nature are role models for other immigrant communities abroad,” he said.

The Prime Minister announced an extension of the deadline for overseas Indians to convert their Person of Indian Origin (PIO) cards to Overseas Citizen of India cards by six months.

“I keep saying and I also wish (for conversion of PIO cards to OCI cards) but you are all very busy and so you have not been able to do this. So, seeing your preoccupation, I am happy to announce that we have extended the deadline for such conversion from December 31, 2016, until June 30, 2017 without any penalty,’’ he said.

He also said that new procedures were being put in place to simplify the process of obtaining OCI cards for people from the Girmitiya countries starting with Mauritius.

The Prime Minister said a new scheme aimed at personality development of people travelling abroad for small jobs would be launched soon. “To ensure that the migrating Indian workers enjoy better economic opportunities, we will shortly launch a skill development programme, the Pravasi Kaushal Vikas Yojana, targeted at Indian youth who seek overseas employment.”

Workers travelling to take jobs like housekeeping in a foreign country “can be trained to speak a few sentences of the language in the country they are travelling to, some manners, and some cultural issues which are essential”, the Prime Minister said. “We want to provide soft skills irrespective of how little people have been educated. This will help boost confidence and make the workers believe they belong on foreign soil. This is our intention,” he said.

A scheme called VAJRA or Visiting Adjunct Joint Research Faculty would be launched by the Department of Science and Technology soon to enable the Indian scientific community abroad to participate in research and development in India. “Under the scheme, an overseas Indian can work for one to three months in an institution in India,” Modi said.

The Prime Minister called on the Indian diaspora to make investments in India, since FDI norms have been liberalised for overseas Indians. “Investments by PIOS on non-repatriation basis, and by companies, trusts and partnerships owned by them, are now deemed to be domestic investment at par with investments made by resident Indians,” he said.

He also called for the diaspora to connect with government programmes like Swachh Bharat, Mission Digital India, Startup India and Namami Gange.

PTI PM Narendra Modi is flanked by his Portuguese counterpart António Costa (right) and Suriname Vice-president Michael Ashwin Adhin in Bengaluru, Sunday.