NEW DELHI (TIP): Minister of External Affairs Sh. Salman Khurshid, has exhorted the overseas Indians to become India’s best ambassadors to spread and popularize the country’s values, beliefs, culture and heritage overseas. Presiding over the session on ‘India Soft Power’ on Day-2 of Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2014, Khurshid called upon the delegates to be active in social networking to enable India to build its brand name and image so that deeper economic engagements are concluded with overseas economies, irrespective of their size.

Addressing the session, Kapil Sibal, Minister of Communication & Information Technology and Law & Justice said, the present aspirational India will begin to inspire the remaining part of the globe by 2025, as it will have 90 crore people in the working age population, throwing a lone challenge for successive governments to provide infrastructure and growth opportunities for the people to realize their collective potential. Sibal said that by 2020, 60 crore Indians would have migrated to large cities, embracing latest technologies with the best of education at their command.

This would create windows for them to unleash their potential and make India a hub to interact and interconnect with the rest of the world. The revenue generated in 2006 through IT &ITEs was estimated at $40 billion which has gone up to $100 billion now. Of this, $75 billion was contributed by export earnings. This was indicative of the strides made by the Indian economy, he added. Sibal complimented the diaspora present at the convention, saying that it epitomized India’s soft power and has done India proud and hoped that it continued to serve India. Minister of Culture, Smt Chandresh Kumari Katoch in her presentation, stated that the Indian diaspora should actively spread its civilization, heritage and cultural ethos in their host countries and organize promotional events.

Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards Winners
The President of India Sh. Pranab Mukherjee has conferred Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards to thirteen NRIs, PIOs and Organisations for their outstanding and illustrious contribution in the country of their residence as well as to India in different spheres of their activity.