annual report1-final.qxd - Overseas Indian

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Parallel Sessions incrementally over a period of five years. These scholarships would be awarded for pursuing undergraduate courses in both technical and nontechnical streams. There were plans to establish new educational institutions in India and abroad and expand existing facilities in higher education. Currently, only societies or trusts could establish educational institutions on non-profit basis. For this, there was a need to get NOC from the State or Central Governments and affiliations from the Universities or other educational bodies. There was no Act yet for establishing private universities under the Government of India. However, there were some State Governments who had taken a lead and given permission for establishment of private universities, Banerjee said. In order to accelerate the process, GoI was willing to bring in changes in statutory provision in bodies of higher learning like UGC, AICTE, Medical Council of India, etc. to facilitate increasing participation of private players in promoting higher education. There was a proposal to start an exclusive university for PIOs and increase the number of seats for the children of the diaspora. There was a need to create a select group or task force to identify the priority areas and changes required for legislation, do more aggressive marketing and help develop world-class infrastructure in the education sector, she said. Prof. Alagh commented that Indian education was now in a fairly exciting state. Out of the top 52 software companies, 32 were Indian. There was already a private-public partnership in social and infrastructure areas. There was a plan to extend this to education. Overseas Indians should grab this opportunity, he said. Dr. Ramachandran outlined the success story of BITS-UAE centre in Dubai as an example of establishing institutions of higher learning outside India. There was a high appreciation for the quality of education imparted by Indian institutions of higher learning in UAE. BITS-UAE was sought after not only by the NRIs but also by citizens of UAE, Pakistan and Bangladesh, besides others. The degrees offered by Indian institutions were recognised by institutions abroad. Dr. H.S. Ballal narrated the success story of MAHE and highlighted the vision of its founder, Dr. Ramdas Pai, who initiated the movement of private participation in education. At present, they had two universities with professional colleges including engineering and medical. They also had a large networking with different institutions across the globe. Given a chance, they would like to be partners in establishment of an exclusive university for PIOs given their experience and wherewithal, he said. Ravi Seethapathy pointed out that the drawback of Indian higher education was shortage of quality teachers. He also felt that there was need to impart skills at different levels of education to students, and evolve leadership courses at the grassroots, etc. He emphasised on the need for developing interdisciplinary education, which was a new concept in secondary education in Canada and elsewhere. He felt that private-public partnership was a way forward to augment R&D and this should be given priority. He observed that networking and synergy were the keys to improve the current situation in education. The discussions during the question and answer session reflected on the need for providing spiritual and cultural education, which was the strength of India, in educational institutions. As a part of this, it was suggested that courses in yoga and spiritual lessons should be part of a comprehensive curriculum. The Indian educational administration did not recognise these courses whereas students in U.S. were given certain credits for this. Dr. Bikas Sanyal cautioned that higher education came under GATT agreement of WTO and India should be well prepared to meet its challenges. S. Krishna Kumar, Secretary, MOIA, called for efforts to overcome hurdles and remove bottlenecks in starting new educational institutions and collaborations. In this regard, participants could organise groups and come out with suggestions as to what the GoI could do to make the process less cumbersome and more transparent. The suggestion was made in the light of Prime Minister’s suggestion of starting an organisation on the lines of the British Council. 38
Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Pravasi Bharatiya Divas There was a suggestion from the floor that since GoI was short of funds, there was need for complete autonomy of higher and technical education. As in the case of the industries sector, education should also be made free from the licence-quota raj. Chair: Presentation: Keynote Speaker: Speakers: Parallel V: Assisted Living Dr. Laxminarayan Pandey, Chairman, Parliamentary Standing Committee B.K. Samal, LIC Housing Finance Ltd. K. Sridhar, LIC Jiji Thomson, NORKA P.K.Choudhury, MD, ICRA The session was chaired by Dr. Laxminarayan Pandey, Member of Parliament and Chairman of the Standing Committee of MOIA. The first presentation was given by B.K. Samal and K. Sridhar of LIC India. They highlighted how LIC Care Homes Ltd provided support to senior citizens. They also talked about the emerging social scenario where the structure of the family was changing and creating problem for the senior citizens. One of the major challenges that senior citizens were facing today was lack of care and support from the family. As more and more senior citizens were now in need of support from outside agencies, there was a need for urgent response from individuals and agencies to come forward. The presentation highlighted one of the pilot projects undertaken by LIC in Bangalore, which provided not only shelter to old people but also made their living dignified and comfortable. They also mentioned that there was a large business opportunity in this area as there was a growing number of senior citizens demanding support. The next presentation was by Jiji Thomson, Principal Secretary to Government of Kerala for Non-Resident Indians. He mentioned that Kerala had the highest ratio of senior citizens needing support from outside their family and highlighted a number of steps taken by the Kerala Government in the last six years. He mentioned that there was less family support to old people in urban areas. Thomson presented the case of ‘Heritage Village’ situated at Mavelikera in Kerala where they had a substantial number of old people with children living abroad. The residents enjoyed facilities such as video conferencing to facilitate family bonding. The last presentation was on ‘Risk Mitigation in Real Estate’ and it was made by P.K. Choudhury, Managing Director of ICRA Ltd. He gave a brief introduction about the real estate scenario, its financial aspects, clearing facilities, prices, acquisition and the grading system that were needed to provide quality services. He also mentioned that information facilities were available online to stakeholders. He mentioned ICRA’s initiative to provide information services to the investor, developer and end user, the risk factors and the investment potential. Choudhury also talked about the grading process in the real estate business. There were questions related to the rating of land, investment in apartments, and insurance by participants. Following were some of the important suggestions made by the participants: ! A participant from U.S. mentioned that there was a growing number of old people among the diaspora who needed old age care. If agencies like LIC could start projects in the U.S., U.K. etc., it would be a success. This also had business potential as countries like the U.S. gave old age pension to its senior citizens. ! Sudhir Jain from U.K. mentioned the need for LIC to provide concessional loans to individuals to start projects to support old people. ! A participant working with NHS Health Service in London mentioned that there were quite a number of senior citizens in the age group of 50- 60 wanting to spend their last years in India and needed improved health service and other facilities. ! There was a need for an information system where Indian people from all parts of world would know about old age facilities available in India. The difference in lifestyle, viewpoint and ideas of senior citizens should also be taken into consideration to provide better services. The stigma attached to 39
Page 1: Pravasi Bharatiya DIVAS PROCEEDINGS
Page 4 and 5: Introduction India is a vibrant nat
Page 6 and 7: Inaugural Session KATHRADA stated t
Page 8 and 9: Plenary Session 1 S.Krishna Kumar,
Page 10 and 11: Plenary Session 1 must consider the
Page 12 and 13: Plenary Session 2 would be addresse
Page 14 and 15: Plenary Session 2 continued in the
Page 16 and 17: Plenary Session 3 Internet technolo
Page 18 and 19: Plenary Session 4 its in their Indi
Page 20 and 21: Parallel Sessions with States A del
Page 22 and 23: Parallel Sessions with States tion
Page 24 and 25: Parallel Sessions with States manuf
Page 26 and 27: Parallel Sessions with States said,
Page 28 and 29: Parallel Sessions with States Refor
Page 30 and 31: Parallel Sessions with States secto
Page 32 and 33: Plenary Session 5 networks, he said
Page 34 and 35: Parallel Sessions Panelists at the
Page 36 and 37: Parallel Sessions region. A major i
Page 38 and 39: Parallel Sessions Intern, 4th IDYP
Page 42 and 43: Parallel Sessions old age home shou
Page 44 and 45: Panel Discussions Panelists at the
Page 46 and 47: Panel Discussions Government in mak
Page 48 and 49: Plenary Session 7 Vijay Mahajan, Ch
Page 50 and 51: Roundtable 2 regulatory framework.
Page 52 and 53: Valedictory President A.P.J. Abdul
Page 54 and 55: Annexure1: Programme Schedule 0930-
Page 56 and 57: Annexure1: Programme Schedule Mr. G
Page 58 and 59: Annexure 3: List of Speakers 1. DR.
Page 60 and 61: Annexure 3: List of Speakers Fax: 1
Page 62 and 63: Annexure 3: List of Speakers 75. B.
Page 64 and 65: Press Coverage 64
Page 68: GLOBALLY INDIAN PRAVASI BHARATIYA D

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