annual report1-final.qxd - Overseas Indian

Parallel Sessions
Intern, 4th IDYP
Yogeswar Sangwan, Deputy Secretary, MOIA,
gave a brief introduction of MOIA’s activities.
Yogendra Choudhry, Director, Nehru Yuvak
Kendra, gave a detailed presentation about
Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan, its objectives,
activities, programmes and road map for the
future.
Poonam Ahluwalia, a social worker from the U.S.
explained the activities and projects of her organisation
and stressed the importance of youth in
social development. She emphasised the importance
of global partnership for youth development
and importance of funds for this purpose. She
invited people to attend the Youth Summit to be
held in Nairobi, Kenya from September 13 to 16,
2006.
Ramesh Subramanium gave a brief introduction
about youth activities in his country. He said that
the youth were the agents of change for the future
and they were the present and future of any country.
He stressed the importance of starting networking
for better coordination and communication.
Priyanka Patnaik, IDYP Intern from Canada, narrated
her experiences during her visit to India
along with other participants. She spoke about her
trips to different places in India, including the
famed Taj Mahal, rural schools, villages and their
meeting with the Governor of Uttaranchal and
President, Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam. She saw richness
in Indian culture, food and also business. She
observed how the media was more often focusing
on the negative side of India and missing its positives.
She spoke about the divinity of Ganga and
their memorable trip to Rishikesh. She was
emphatic that this programme was the best opportunity
for youth abroad to visit and learn about
India. Lauding MOIA for doing fantastic work, she
said that this experience had come as an eye opener
for her. She ended with the words “Sare Jahan se
achcha, Hindustan hamara.”
Kulvinder Singh, internee from San Francisco,
said that this programme provided a way for his
dreams to contribute to India and connect back to
India, his motherland. Every participant in this
programme saw India in a unique way, he said. He
shared his experiences during his visits to different
parts of India. He observed that Indians were the
same wherever he went and he was received with
warmth. India’s engagement with its diaspora must
expand beyond investment to include films, social
work and also spiritual subjects. Expressing his
thanks, he ended with the words, “Mera Bharat
mahaan.”
Chairman Madhu Gaud Yeshkhi stressed on the
importance of youth in the development of India.
He said that the youth had to be involved and
engaged in many more ways in the Pravasi
Bharatiya Divas deliberations. He explained the
poor situation of schools in many parts of India.
He said that India was not looking for only money
but diaspora youth’s help for improvement of the
programmes. He urged the overseas Indian youth
to work for India so that India could surpass
China and added that this could be possible if
people worked everywhere and not in government
alone.
Certificates of participation were distributed to
the 4th IPDY internees.
Q&A
! Venki from Singapore asked about the follow-up
action from the internees after the programme
ended. He stressed the importance of
building long-term relationship with the participants
by making Yahoo youth groups. A member
of the audience (from London) emphasised the
importance of building networks
! Dr. Mirza Asif from Switzerland shared his
personal experiences with rural children. He said
that adopting an Indian village, as he had done
himself, was a way forward. He also called for
steps to preserve the rural traditional culture while
at the same time encouraging rural children
towards improvement and innovation.
! A delegate from Malaysia said that MOIA
should also think what they could do for the diaspora
and what the diaspora could do in turn. He
suggested opening a website where one could see
all the details and programmes including videos or
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