The 14th Meeting of the Governing Council of Overseas Indian Facilitation Centre (OIFC) was held in New Delhi co-chaired by Shri Anil Kumar Agarwal, Secretary, Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) and Shri Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Smt. Sushma Swaraj interacted briefly with members of the Governing Council.
OIFC is a not-for-profit Trust set-up by MOIA in 2007, in partnership with CII, to promote economic & knowledge engagement of Indian Diaspora with India. Reviewing OIFC’s Action Plan for 2015-16, the Governing Council directed OIFC to undertake enhanced and sustained engagement with Overseas Indians in a proactive manner. OIFC’s role and activities will therefore be expanded to include – focussed dialogues with overseas Indians; new programmes and initiatives to strengthen outreach towards young overseas Indians; and active engagement with the State Governments to offer their investment projects to the Overseas Indians. Some of these are:
• Recognising overseas Indians as important stakeholders in India’s economic growth and development, OIFC will hold “Investor Connect meets” in select foreign countries with prominent overseas Indians; Indian Diaspora corporate leaders and decision makers to focus their attention on the Indian market.
• OIFC will organise visits to India by business delegations led by overseas Indians from small and medium enterprises to connect them with business partners and relevant stakeholders in Central and State Governments.
• OIFC will offer Diaspora investors an opportunity to invest in social & development enterprises in India.
• OIFC will also launch a Know Indian Economy or “Indonomy” programme which will provide young Diaspora Entrepreneurs an insight into the Indian economy, market and business environment.
• An India Corporate Internship programme will be introduced for final year MBA students of Indian-origin, to provide them an opportunity of work experience in India’s premier corporate organisations.
• Another OIFC initiative “Knowledge Reconnect” will invite eminent scholars, researchers & academicians among overseas Indians to engage in capacity building of India’s MSMEs, faculty & researchers, start-ups & incubators management.
The participants of the Governing Council meeting included prominent overseas Indians; Indian industry CEOs, and senior officials from GOI Ministries and 12 state governments.