Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh would be one of the panel session speakers at the ‘Pravasiya Bhartiya Diwas 2017’ convention to be held in Bengaluru from January 7 to 9 in Karnataka.
Notably, the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) is celebrated on January 9 every year to mark the contribution of Overseas Indian community in the development of India.
January 9 was chosen as the day to celebrate this occasion since it was on this day in 1915 that Mahatma Gandhi, the greatest Pravasi, returned to India from South Africa, led India’s freedom struggle and changed the lives of Indians forever, a Union External Affairs Ministry note mentioned.
The PBD convention attracts overseas Indians from all over the world. Nearly 3000 delegates participated in the PBD in January 2015 in Gujarat.
The PBD Convention features Plenary Sessions; an Exhibition; Cultural programmes and provides an opportunity to interact with other Overseas Indians, Policy makers, Political leadership and others.
Chief Ministers of several states also participate and address the delegates on opportunities available in their respective States.
Significantly, Dr António Costa, Prime Minister of the Republic of Portugal has accepted an invitation from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to be the Chief Guest at the 14th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention to be held in Bengaluru, a Pravasi Bhartiya press release informed.
He will participate in the inaugural session of the PBD Convention on January 8 and address the delegates.
Michael Ashwin Satyandre Adhin, Vice President of the Republic of Suriname will be the Special Guest at the Youth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) to be held on January 7.
He will address the young overseas Indian delegates at the inaugural session of the Youth PBD, along with Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj and Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports Vijay Goel.
Meanwhile, it may be recalled that Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh said after his 10-day tour of the United States recently that American entrepreneurs and NRIs have shown keen interest in ‘Make in Chhattisgarh’ vision created on the lines of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Make in India' campaign.
On the occasion, Singh informed that the main motive of his US tour was to promote capital investment in various sectors of manufacturing under 'Make in Chhattisgarh' campaign and to project Chhattisgarh as an inseparable part of ‘Make in India’ campaign at global level.
Singh said that he and delegation of State Government attended Investors' Meet at New York on November 29, at Chicago on November 30 and at San Francisco on December 2. These meets were jointly organized by US-Indian Business Council (USIBC) and TII-Global.
In these events, more than 70 American industrialists, NRIs and CEOs of various companies participated.
likewise, the Investors' Meet in Chicago was attended by more than 60 investors and that in San Francisco was attended by more than 60 investors. American investors were invited to invest in Chhattisgarh.
In these events, Chhattisgarh Government's delegation had one-to-one discussions with investors about the wide scope of investment in non-core sectors of Chhattisgarh such as IT, defense, food processing, pharmaceuticals, solar energy, start-up and bio-technology.
The industrial groups with whom the delegation had discussions include UTS Global, E-Kisan Foundation, Global India Business Council, Vanguard Technology, Physician of Indian Origin, Cysco, Google and others.
In the Investors' Meet of San Francisco, three major MoUs were signed. On the occasion, Stanford University signed MoU with Chhattisgarh Government for exchange of teaching material, research, professors and students for educational purpose and also for creating awareness for prevention of rheumatic heart disease in Chhattisgarh.
Wadhwani Foundation signed MoU with Chhattisgarh to promote entrepreneurship in Chhattisgarh, which includes providing employment opportunities and promotion of Start-up and SMI Eco-system for skill development.
Under the MoU signed by Spinta Global Accelerator with Chhattisgarh, steps will be taken to enhance professional competency and entrepreneurial skills in youth of the State.
Under the leadership of the Chief Minister, Chhattisgarh Government's delegation visited Digital Start-up 1871-Technical and Entrepreneurial Development Centre in Chicago, which was established to provide technical, financial and commercial assistance and guidance to Digital Start-up Business Community of Chicago, officials informed.
A total of 400 High growth digital start-up works are underway in this centre. The delegation met the Chief Operational Officer of this centre Tom Alexander and had a discussion about developing start-up sector in Chhattisgarh. On December 2, delegation visited Google campus in San Francisco and met Vice-President Product Management Anjali Joshi and Group Product Manager Meenal Mehta to discuss about the scope of cooperation between Google and Chhattisgarh Government in sectors of health, IT and education.
On December 2, the delegation visited 500 start-up campus in San Francisco. Officials of Chhattisgarh met members of 500 Start-up Group and discussed about start-up ecosystem.