If the Covid-19 pandemic has hit India much more ferociously this year than the last year, the Indian diaspora, too, has tried to rise to the occasion and extend a helping hand like never before to help India fight the pandemic.
Last year’s relief work by the diaspora got recognition at the highest level during the 16th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention held earlier this year when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanked them for their contribution to the PM CARES Fund as well as to the global community.
The Indian diaspora’s contribution this time should be seen in both letter and spirit. The diaspora not only contributed themselves, but also engaged with larger communities in their adopted countries to raise donations as well as with their governments to step up their support to India, says Victor T Thomas, President & CEO, Canada-India Business Council. For example, an independent senator for Ontario, Ratna Omidvar, demanded that the Government match Canadian donations to India. In the US, the Indian diaspora lobbied with the government and businesses to send more relief.
Another call from Modi to people of the Indian diaspora would not only be in continuation of his high-octane engagement with them, but also inspire them to step on the gas to proactively engage with India to help prepare for future waves of Covid-19, if any, and other emergency situations.
In fact, this is the high time for India to step up engagement with the diaspora because they have very high appetite at the moment. The time is ripe to unlock the potential of the relationship to help India overcome not only future waves of Covid-19, but also other development challenges. A cue from the Indian government would be useful in this direction, says Bhav Dhillon, Honorary Consul of India in Auckland. Dhillon is also a prominent business and community leader in New Zealand.
Going beyond donating cash and contributing in kind, the diaspora’s rich expertise and experiences would be useful not only for overcoming imminent, but also long-term development challenges in India, says Rajan Navani, Vice Chairman & Managing Director at JetLine Group of Companies. Navani has been involved in many such cross-border engagements. Apart from being Chair of CII Council on India@75, which is an industry-led initiative working for an advanced India, he is also Global Board Member of US India Business Council, and Founding Board Member of Indiaspora, a nonprofit organisation of global Indian origin leaders committed to promoting social change.
While donations in cash and kind are like ends in themselves in emergency situations, the diaspora’s next phase of engagement could be guided by measurable goals through roadmaps drawn up with the help of intended beneficiary communities. For example, the diaspora can consider to volunteer to support some of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), or may be some targets related to only one goal like the SDG 3 on Good Health and Well-Being, or the SDG 9 on Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, which also includes health infrastructure.
Since multiple actors from the diaspora might be already working on different pieces in their respective capacities anyway, there is also a need to connect them on a common platform to create a database, avoid replication, promote scaling up, and identify and plug in gaps for achieving the set goals efficiently.
NITI Aayog or any other non-governmental think tank can take a lead, undertake research to zero in on potential areas of cooperation, identify gaps in skill sets or resources and engage with members of the diaspora to secure the required expertise to cope with emergency situations like pandemics. Think tanks can also assess the infrastructure, technology or human resource deficits and draw up smart models to address these challenges, says Singapore-based Jayesh Parekh, Managing Partner at Good Startup and Member of Advisory Board, Akhand Jyoti Eye Hospital, Bihar.
Simultaneously, it would be helpful to recognise the valuable role of the diaspora in bilateral agreements between governments and other strategic initiatives. For example, Australia and India already have bilateral economic architecture in place. While talking about opportunities in 10 sectors, including in health, Australia’s ‘An India Economic Strategy to 2035’ refers to the inherent economic asset within the Indian diaspora, which is the second highest taxpaying such group in the country.
Going forward, diaspora-specific programmes should be developed to promote and strengthen the people to people links between Australia and India to help accelerate business between the two nations as well as to institutionalise the diaspora’s outbound philanthropy into India, says Jai Patel, Head of India Business Practice at KPMG Australia, and a well-known member of the Indian diaspora, who has been involved in organising relief for India.
A global strategy involving donor and recipient countries should be also developed for making cross-border giving easier. Transnational philanthropy is growing by the day, but it is still governed by old world practices, policies and laws at national levels, says Krishan Mehta, an expert in diaspora philanthropy and Assistant Vice President, Engagement, Ryerson University, Toronto.
Donor countries, for example, impose limitations on grant making, and recipient countries on receiving. While donor countries may enforce restrictions on tax-exempt organisations ranging from limiting grant making for specific purposes to tedious reporting requirements, recipient countries may also limit the activities that can be foreign funded.
Besides, the world is changing fast. The spread of the Covid-19 pandemic has shown that borders can be irrelevant. Such emerging global emergencies call for innovative global agreements, says Canadian Senator Ratna Omidvar, who is also a prominent leader on migration, diversity and inclusion. Covax, a World Health Organization-led global initiative to promote equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines, is already one such example. India has been usually in the forefront of such global discourses. It is in India’s self-interest to work proactively towards a diaspora giving regime globally since the country has the world’s largest diaspora population of 18 million whose heart beats for India.
Source: The Times of India
Published on 14 June 2021