New Delhi (TIP): K.C. Venugopal, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, has underlined the Govrnment’s commitment to improve the travel experience of the youth who search for greener pastures across the world. Addressing a session on ‘Young Achievers’ at the Youth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, the Minister said, “Air India as the National Carrier is indebted to the Overseas Indians and always offers you the opportunity to fly you around. Air India had a bad time combating with debts. Now we are regaining the ground. We are happy that the improved customer confidence is being reflected in the bookings as well.

There were certain issues and concerns about the performance of Air India Express, the low cost carrier from Air India Group. Air India Express is specially designed for Gulf sector services. The process of empowering Air India Express as an independent business entity is progressing. We have rolled out many initiatives to make Air India Express complaint free. We have also increased our services to Gulf Sector, and on time performance is monitored at the apex level to ensure customer satisfaction. To hear from the NRIs personally about their concerns about Air India Express, I started a mail service too”, he said. The Minister said that every generation of NRIs has its own specific opportunities and challenges.

The long cultural exchange and bartering between the countries have set the soil ready for larger acceptance of young Indians. He said, “The second generation NRIs are the ambassadors of a resurgent India, which has opened its doors for the world. Ambition, innovation and management expertise in international trade are the trademarks of a successful Young Indian. They have enhanced footsteps of Indian business across the world. Even in Kerala, we have many such young investors who ventured to go out from their middle class houses in small towns to international business hotspots. However, the expectation levels and competencies of new generation NRIs are manifold compared to their predecessors. They deserve more handholding and enabling policies by the Indian Government.

It is a fact that there are initiatives to motivate the young investors back home in India. But I do believe that we have to expand our net so that a government umbrella for Young Overseas Indians can be set up. Such a body will have to extract data regarding investment potential in each sector, may tie up prospective cash flow for various PPP models, may ensure single window clearance for NRI investments etc.” “As a country and a responsible government we are committed to provide young Indians similar opportunities elsewhere, so that they can confidently invest in India. It is high time that we need to develop our own engineering research and reduce dependence on the borrowed technologies. In this liberalized economy now we can afford to integrate R&D into the prime business of Indian companies. The companies also need to promote the synergy between industries & education,” said Shri Venugopal.