Diaspora Direct Investment and the ‘growth story’

(This is an essay from our print quarterly 'Diaspora: Southasia Abroad'. See more from the issue here.)

On 28 September 2014, a 19,000 strong crowd comprised predominantly of Indian Americans, gathered in Madison Square Garden in New York City. They were there to cheer on a man who less than a decade ago had been banned from travelling to the US for his role in the 2002 Gujarat massacre. Striding into centre stage now as the newly elected Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi thanked the audience for the "kind of love [that] has not been given to any Indian leader ever". This validation by overseas Indians, he said, was a loan that he would repay by "forming the India of [their] dreams," by making it easier for the cheering crowds and their extended community to return to India and bring their talents back to the homeland. In less euphemistic terms, Modi's message, as reiterated in his series of meetings with Indian American entrepreneurs, was that his government was committed to ensuring that India would be open for business, particularly for its diaspora.

'A time to return'
A few weeks after Modi's triumphant return from New York, Sushma Swaraj, India's new external affairs minister, who also happens to be responsible for the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, echoed this message in a different context. Since 2007, the Indian government had been involved in organising regional Pravasi Bharatiya Divas conferences around the world as a way to "allow participation of the Indian diaspora" who were unable to attend the annual meetings held in India. Inaugurating the London meeting in October 2014, Swaraj told her audience that "now is the time to come to India", since there were "immense opportunities" waiting for them, especially in the fields of "manufacturing, infrastructure development, education, health… science and technology, research and innovation". To facilitate this participation, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government was committed to providing "efficiency, accountability, speedy decision making… and [a] favourable business environment". Should the members of the hugely successful overseas Indian community experience any difficulty or bureaucratic red tape in their efforts to return to their homeland and participate in "India's growth story", all they needed to do was to let the minister know and she would solve their problems.