India plans to set up 3 universities for NRIs

Chennai: The Government of India is planning to set up three new universities for the benefit of the children of Non Resident Indian (NRIs) and Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs).

Speaking at the regional session on Carribbean, at the 7th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, 2009, in Chennai, G K Vasan, minister of state (independent charge), Ministry of Statistics & Programme said, the first university will be located at Bangalore and is expected to be operational by the year 2010.

These universities would have a 50 per cent reservation for NRIs and PIOs. The government had also increased the number of scholarships to 120 to facilitate unhindered access to higher education for children of NRIs and PIOs, who are not economically well-off in their adopted lands, the minister added.

He noted that there are about five million overseas Indians all over the world. In recent years, the remittance inflows have increased impressively, rising from $13 billion in 2001 to over $30 billion in 2007.

The setting up of the Overseas Indian Facilitation Centre in New Delhi and Overseas Indian Development Fund have been some of the recent initiatives which would go a long way in catering to the needs of the Indian diaspora across the world.

The government has established an India Development Foundation of Overseas Indians, which would channel contributions that NRIs would like to send home for specific development projects.

NRIs who want to send money for philanthropic reasons can be rest assured that their funds would be used for whatever purpose they desire and the government would identify local NGOs to carry out the activities.