US, Malaysian Indians to dominate PBD

New Delhi, Jan 5 (UNI) Indians from the United States and Malaysia will dominate the proceedings of the three-day Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) which will have as its focus the social development challenges before India and the role of the Indian diaspora in overcoming them.

Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi today told mediapersons that Indians from the US and Malaysia constituted nearly 40 per cent of the 1185 NRIs/PIOs who had confirmed participation in the PBD being held here during January 7-9.

He said as many as 250 delegates from the USA and 230 from Malaysia are participating in the PBD being held on the theme "Rooting for the roots -Meeting India's social development challenges." Mr Ravi said there were 78 delegates from the United Arab Emirates, 40 from Canada, South Africa (22), Holland (20), Singapore (25), Mauritius (30), Europe (30), besides 180 from India.

There would be a total of six Plenary sessions and 22 Working Group sessions at the Vigyan Bhavan, the main venue of the fifth edition of the PBD which is intended to link 25 million strong Indian diaspora with their country of origin.

Out of the 175 speakers, 49 are from overseas, including five ministers. As many as 29 Indian ministers and six Chief Ministers would be the speakers in different sessions. Ms Sheila Dikshit (Delhi), Narendra Modi (Gujarat), Bhupinder Singh Hooda (Haryana), V S Achuthanandan (Kerala), Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhy pradesh) and Vilasrao Deshmukh(Maharashtra) are the Chief Ministers who would attend the event.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would inaugurate the PBD on January seven, while President A P J Abdul Kalam would deliver the Valedictory address and give away the Pravasi Bharatiya Saman Awards on Janury nine.

Singapore Deputy Prime Minister prof S Jayakumar would be the Chief Guest.

Mr Ravi said the winners of the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards would be announced on January eight.

The plenary sessions would discuss Challenges of Development in the Global Context, Development Challenges of the states : Partnership Opportunities, How to get 1.5 trillion US dollars of capital investment, the resource hurdle for development, leveraging technology for development and Planning for development : How to include the Indian diaspora.

There would be live telecast of the sessions by Doordarshan. More than 600 media persons were issued accredtation to cover the event.

MORE UNI