AK Sharma
NEW DELHI: The 17th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, marks a new chapter in Indian diaspora’s partnership with their home country’s progress during the Amrit Kaal.
The convention is being held in a physical format for the first time after the Covid-19 pandemic and the Pravasi Bharatiyas (persons of Indian origin living abroad) have something special to celebrate – India today is not only heading G20, the grouping of the world’s top economies, but it has also emerged as the world’s fastestgrowing economy.
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi put it, “the Amrit Kaal of India’s independence is not only a period of national development and glory, but also an occasion when the country will play an important role in giving a direction to the world.”
Since 2003, when the then-PM Atal Bihari headed a BJP-led Government at the Centre, India had been observing January 9 every year as the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) to commemorate the day Mahatma Gandhi returned from South Africa to India, in 1915.
The format of the PBD Convention was revised in 2015, a year after Narendra Modi came to power, and it is now organised every two years. The convention is the flagship event of the Ministry of External Affairs and provides an important platform to engage and connect with overseas Indians.
The PBD mega event is being followed by the seventh edition of ‘Invest Madhya Pradesh – Global Investors Summit’ at the Brilliant Convention Centre in Indore, which has also been adjudged as the cleanest city of India.
