Date:09/01/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/01/09/stories/2009010951130500.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

“More interaction needed among corporates”

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: Speakers at a meeting highlighted the need for more interaction among corporate houses in India, especially those in Tamil Nadu and Mauritius.

Mahyendrah Utchanah, president, Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin, Mauritius, said the first set of people from India migrated to Mauritius in 1729 from Chennai, Puducherry and Karaikal.

At present, the country has 200 Tamil schools and the government provides all the cultural organisations with subsidy.

M. Chanemougame Selvam, president, Tamil Sangam, the Reunion Islands, said the Tamils in Reunion Islands had lost their identity when they were ruled by the French. But the country had improved economically. It needed cultural support to regain the lost identity. The Tamil Sangam was just 20 years old, but it built a memorial for the Tamils. More than 2 lakh Tamilians lived on the Reunion Islands, more than the number of the Tamils living in Mauritius.

A large number of Indians have migrated to other parts of the world and become permanent residents, T.K. Naidoo, a scholar from South Africa, said.