September 22, 2019 was not any ordinary Sunday. On this day, at the NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas in USA, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a gathering of about 50,000 people who came for the historic ‘Howdy, Modi!’ event. At the event, PM Modi addressed the Indian diaspora that forms a sizeable community in the US.
A spokesperson for the Texas India Forum (TIF), the organisers of the event said, “The audience will be the largest gathering ever for an elected foreign leader visiting the US, other than the Pope. It will be a history-making audience of over 50,000 Indian-Americans and we are very proud of the numbers. It is a celebration of the culture of the unity of America and India.” The mega event not only, once again, showcased India globally but also the Indian diaspora that has been growing in number and stature globally and redefining the ‘New India.’ The Prime Minister also met local Kashmiri Pandits, Sikhs and Dawoodi Bohras during his US visit then.
The Indian diaspora gains prominence
It’s not that Indian premiers didn’t address gatherings in foreign nations earlier, but the fact that the ‘Howdy, Modi!’ event had an unprecedented number of attendees and was broadcasted live online and on television channels reaching over one billion people across the US and India was not an ordinary feat. It was a statement that the new India cannot be written off and is here to stay…and on its own terms.
India has the largest diaspora population in the world with 18 million people living outside, according to a report by the United Nations. The largest number of migrants from India reside in the UAE, the US and Saudi Arabia. The report ‘International Migration 2020 Highlights’, by the Population Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) detailed further distribution of this population. India’s vibrant diaspora is distributed across the UAE (3.5 million), the US (2.7 million), Saudi Arabia (2.5 million) and in large numbers in Australia, Canada, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar and the UK.
Indian government’s renewed outreach
Aside from the Howdy, Modi! event, PM Narendra Modi has addressed and reached out to Indians overseas at several occasions since he came into office in 2014. The event in Houston was his third major address to the Indian-American community since 2014 and the first after his re-election in May 2019. The previous two were at the Madison Square Garden, New York in 2014 and the Silicon Valley in 2016. These events too were roaring success and were attended by more than 20,000 people.
The Indian Prime Minister participated in similar events in other nations including the UK, Australia, Canada, Israel, Dubai, etc. to reach out to the expatriate Indian community. And, the host countries have been extremely welcoming of his initiatives too. In Houston, President Donald Trump accompanied PM Modi for the event and in the UK, British Prime Minister was present with PM Modi in 2015 when the latter addressed the Indian diaspora at the Wembley Stadium in London. Even at the London event, a 60,000-strong audience of British-Indians welcomed the Indian premier. In January 2019, while inaugurating the 15th Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas convention in his parliamentary constituency of Varanasi, PM Modi described NRIs as ‘India’s brand ambassadors’ and said they were the symbols of the country’s capabilities. “People of Indian origin are in leadership roles in countries such as Mauritius, Portugal and Ireland.”
The role of Indian diaspora in building a new India cannot be ignored. Indians are in positions of leadership in USA, UK, Canada, Fiji, etc. Kamala Harris, during the election campaign, spoke of her Indian roots only because she realised how important it is to connect with the strong Indian community in the US.
The economic repercussions
During the September 2019 visit to the US, Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended a roundtable with 17 CEOs of energy companies, ‘together worth USD one trillion with operations in more than 150 countries, including India, which they want to grow.’
Petronet LNG, an Indian state-private partnership, signed an MoU with Houston-based oil company Tellurian – a display of the shift of Indian companies from merely buying American energy to growing a stake in it. After the summit, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs Raveesh Kumar said the Indian company will “invest USD 2.5 billion in Tellurian’s proposed Driftwood LNG export terminal, in exchange for the rights to 5 million metric tons of LNG per year over 40 years.”
Striking new partnerships
India is now looking to establish more stable and long-lasting partnerships with existing partners and forge new ones with countries beyond the usual G4 (India, Germany, Japan and Brazil), BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa).
To that accord, PM Modi hosted the first-ever summit with leaders of the Caribbean countries. He met the leaders of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) on 26 September 2019 in New York during the first-ever India-Caricom leaders’ summit, with a focus on fighting climate change and increasing India’s participation with the grouping. The Prime Minister also announced a ‘USD 14-million grant for community development projects in the CARICOM and another USD 150 million line of credit for solar, renewable energy and climate-change related projects.’
The meeting of the leaders of the European Union and India, the world’s two largest democratic spaces, in May 2021 was of great geopolitical significance too especially in terms of international trade and investment. The EU is India’s biggest trading partner and the second largest destination for Indian exports. EU is a significant foreign investor in India and the trade between the two has increased 72 percent in the last decade. There is a significant Indian population in Europe – the largest being in the UK followed by Italy, Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, France, etc.
The new FDI policy
The current government has taken several initiatives to protect the interests of the countrymen especially in the area of trade and commerce. According to the World Investment Report 2021 by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), India received USD 64 billion in Foreign Direct Investment in 2020, the fifth largest recipient of inflows in the world. The report further added ‘the Covid-19 second wave in the country weighs heavily on the country’s overall economic activities but its strong fundamentals provide “optimism” for the medium term.’
According to the report, ‘FDI increased 27 per cent to USD 64 billion in 2020 from USD 51 billion in 2019, pushed up by acquisitions in the information and communication technology (ICT) industry, making the country the fifth largest FDI recipient in the world.’
On 17 April 2020, India changed its Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy to protect Indian companies from, according to the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), ‘opportunistic takeovers and acquisitions of Indian companies due to the current Covid-19 pandemic.’ An official of the department spoke of the concerns expressed by Indian corporates about the possible ‘takeovers of distressed firms by Chinese companies.’ While the new FDI policy does not restrict markets, the policy ensures that all FDI will now be under scrutiny of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
According to the new rules, the DPIIT has included ‘individuals and companies of all countries that share land borders with India.’ The move, in effect, brings Chinese companies and individuals under the purview of the new FDI protocol.