Ronen Sen releases book on overseas Indians, lauds their inputs

New York, Oct 30 (UNI) Ambassador Ronen Sen has released the ''Encyclopedia of the Indian Diaspora,'' a compendium on Indians settled overseas during the past few centuries, at a community gathering here.

The envoy to the United States praised Indian expatriates for excelling in their chosen fields and put the prestige of their motherland high in their adopted lands. He particularly appreciated, at the weekend function, the efforts of Indian-Americans and also Indians in Britain, where he was an ambassador earlier.

Said to be the first of its kind, the illustrated book documents has one of the great overseas citizenry. It gives valuable insights into the history, growth and development of Indians around the world highlighting their socio-cultural and political contributions to their adopted lands.

Fiji-born Indian Brij Lal, who is now at the Australian National University, is the general editor of the compendium. Citibank supported the two-year effort of compiling the book with the help of 60 academics and experts, most of them overseas Indians.

''We recognise that the large and expanding diasporic communities represent a social transformation of global significance,'' Vicky Bindra, executive vice president of Citigroup's Global Consumer Group, said in a statement.

''We serve 190,000 global Indians through 64 international business centres around the world and we are pleased to support this book which records the enterprise and contribution of Indian communities to their host countries,'' he added.

Mr Lal cited the presence Indians in almost all countries of the world and said the book could be termed as complete as possible.

''The book gives deep and enriching insights into the actual lived experience of the Indian diaspora, which is nearly 20 million strong.

There is hardly a single country in the world which does not have an Indian community in it, and our coverage is as comprehensive as we could make it,'' he said.

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