Missions to boost connect with NRIs
dubai — On Tuesday evening, as Indian missions across the world marked the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas (NRI Day), hundreds of Indian expats from all over the UAE gathered at the Indian consulate in Bur Dubai for a celebration. The NRI Day is an annual celebratory day that marks the contribution of people of Indian origin (PIO) towards their homeland.
Making some important announcements on behalf of the Indian missions in both Abu Dhabi and Dubai, Consul General Vipul said the missions will be launching some new initiatives to step up their engagement with the community.
One of the initiatives the consulate looking to launch in the next few weeks is to constitute some committees within its fold, to play a purely advisory role and address specific issues. For example, labour and seafarers’ issues, educational and cultural topics. “We already have a pool of people who are always connected with us as volunteers. We now plan to have systematic way of having meetings with them so that they can bring to us some unresolved issues in a more systematic manner,” CGI Vipul said.
“The second thing we will start is an open house, that will be held last Friday of every month, from January 26. Either me, as the consul general, or some of our senior officials will be present to look into their problems.”
Although the consulate does reach out to the Indian community in various matters and also receives walk-ins, to address issues on working days, the consulate planned the Friday open house mainly for blue collar workers.
The third initiative, as per the
We already have a pool of people who are always connected with us as volunteers. We are starting an open house, from January 26, that will be held last Friday of every month. Either me or some of senior officials will be present.” Vipul, Consul General of India, Dubai
directives of the government of India, is to increase its engagement with Indian university students here in the UAE. “We already have a good engagement with Indian schools here, but additionally we are planning to have one particular day in a year (mostly in February) where we have a representative section of Indian students studying in universities in UAE. We will engage with them, listen to them, understand their issues and take them up with the government of India,” he added.
After a screening of a short film showing the contribution and achievements of the overseas Indian community towards India’s development, excerpts from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s keynote speech to over 100 Parliamentarians of Indian-origin at the Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra in New Delhi were also shown at the packed auditorium at the consulate.
Indian ambassador to the UAE Navdeep Singh Suri, on his part, urged Indian expats to set a few hours aside for their community members and help in the best possible ways. He highlighted how the healthy relations between India and UAE have positively influenced the Indian community in the UAE.
saman@khaleejtimes.com