Prime Minister inaugurates 8th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas

The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, inaugurated the 8th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in New Delhi today.

The Prime Minister addressed the gathering, "It gives me very great pleasure to join you at the inauguration of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2010. Every year on this day we celebrate and honour the contribution of the overseas Indians is making for the development of their spiritual and ancestral home. We are immensely proud of the achievements of our diaspora. Your achievements have made a great contribution in changing the image of India to the world at large. Let me therefore join Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs and the Chief Minister of Delhi to welcome you to New Delhi and wish you a very happy New Year."

This year we have the great honour and privilege of having the distinguished Lord Khalid Hameed as our Chief Guest. Lord Khalid Hameed epitomizes the spirit of the global Indian. He is not only a very distinguished professional and entrepreneur in the field of medicine and healthcare but he is also an active leader in community services, including most importantly those that promote inter-faith harmony. It is our privilege Sir to have you as the Chief Guest this year. I extend a very warm welcome to you Sir and I thank you for immense thought provoking address on inter-faith harmony.

Yesterday, we held the first meeting of the Prime Minister's Global Advisory Council of Overseas Indians. Some of the best and brightest men and women working in different parts of the world in various fields happen to be people of Indian origin. This is a tremendous knowledge pool and we would like the Council to reflect on where India should be heading in the next 20 years and what we should do in government, in business, in education and in arts and culture and in promoting inter-faith harmony to get where we ought to be 20 years from now. I would like to acknowledge the presence of the Members of this Council and I thank them for their time and effort in a very valuable cause.

The year gone by was an eventful year for India. We undertook the largest democratic exercise in the world during the general elections that were held in May, 2009. These elections reinforced the values of pluralism, tolerance and secularism that are a defining ethic of Indians, whether living in India or abroad.

I recognize the legitimate desire of Indians living abroad to exercise their franchise and to have a say in who governs India. We are working on this issue and I sincerely hope that they will get a chance to vote by the time of the next regular general elections. In fact, I would go a step further and ask why more overseas Indians should not return home to join politics and public life as they are increasingly doing in business and academia.

We are all legitimately proud of India's vibrant democracy. But I cannot say that we have delivered in full measure on the enormous promise and potential of our country. I recognize the frustration well wishers feel when they lament why things don't work faster or why well formulated plans and policies don't get implemented as well as they should be.

It is probably true that we are a slow moving elephant but it is equally true that with each step forward we leave behind a deep imprint. There is a price that we pay in trying to carry all sections of our people along in national development. It is perhaps a price worth paying. Each citizen should feel that his or her voice is heard and have a sense of participation in national development. This is the only way we know to accommodate the enormous diversity of opinions and interests in our country. It is also this characteristic that makes our democracy so vibrant.

But underlying our system is an inherent political and economic resilience that gives our country and its institutions great strength and buoyancy. During the year gone by, the world faced an unprecedented economic and financial crisis. But the Indian economy weathered the crisis quite well. We were affected but no so much as many other countries.

Source : Equity Bulls

Keywords