Date:09/01/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/01/09/stories/2009010956740300.htm

New Delhi

Amartya, Mittal in PM’s Global Advisory Council

Special Correspondent

Constituted after Prime Minister’s announcement last year

Overseas Indians, a vast untapped resource, can be used in the national development processes
Council will have Ministers, senior government officials and prominent overseas Indians

NEW DELHI: Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, leading economist Jagdish Bhagwati, diplomat Kishore Mahbubani, technocrat Sam Pitroda and industrialist L.N. Mittal are among the 20 prominent persons who have accepted the invitation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to be members of his Global Advisory Council.

The council has been constituted in pursuance of the announcement made by the Prime Minister at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas during January last year. The council is based on the idea that the highly skilled overseas Indian community represents a vast untapped resource that can be harnessed as an input into national development processes in India.

The council will be chaired by the Prime Minister and include the External Affairs Minister, the Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs, senior designated officials from the government and prominent overseas Indians, an official release said.

Others who accepted the Prime Minister’s invitation include Karan F. Bilmoria, Swadesh Chatterjee, Ela Gandhi, Rajat Gupta, Renu Khator, Lord Khalid Hameed, P.N.C Menon, Indra K. Nooyi, Bhikhu Chotalal Parekh, C.K. Prahlad, Tan Sri Dato, Ajit Singh, Vikram Pandit, Shashi Tharoor, Srinivasa S.R. Varadhan and Yusuf Ali.

The council will serve as institutionalised dialogue mechanism between the diaspora community and the highest levels of government. The council will advise the government on how to facilitate a dynamic two-way engagement between stakeholders in India and overseas Indians.

Special focus

It will specifically focus on the promotion of business-to-business partnerships, creating appropriate institutional mechanisms that can leverage knowledge, skills and expertise possessed by overseas Indians for socio-economic development processes in the country, and channelising the substantial overseas Indian philanthropic efforts in India into priority areas of development like poverty alleviation, education and health care.