Non Resident Indians, these are the people who we tend to forget most of the time, but these were the ones whose foreign currency had sustained us since the independence day.  

This is a topic which is very emotional and close to my heart, as I have been a resident of India only for the last seven years.   The topic in question is as to what these so called NRI's had done for us.  If, i am correct in my assumption, then the majority of the foreign currency which was remitted to India over the last so many years had been mostly by unskilled labor, majority of them coming from Kerala and the Cuddapah maids from Andhra Pradesh.  

Definitely, we had lots of skilled labor that had settled in foreign lands, but the majority of them had settled down in the gulf region of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE.  I am so proud that my uncles were one of the first people to venture of to these countries in the early 1950's and believe it or not, that was the time, when the Indian rupee was actually the currency that was used.  More to the fact, that my uncle and his other cousins had managed to settled a whole village of our relatives, now numbering almost 350 houses in our village in these countries.

We come from the Konkan region, and the same had happened with so many other Kokanis which have gone and settled in these countries and in other countries as Australia, USA etc...  But the point is that our uncles and relatives were electricians and proud to say, that the next generation comprises mostly of managers, engineers etc...  And they still contribute to the economy of the country by remitting back home.

Another important fact to note is that the next generation of the NRI were given a good education, and were taught the value of the same, and they are now succeeding in their careers thanks to their parents who taught them the value of our own culture.  If you see that these people are very much close to India and they tend to miss it so much so that they can come back and contribute what they can in terms of the education, and the technology enhancement they had received in the countries where they were born.  This can and will happen, but it will take time.

This was long before the time the first technology company INFOSYS had started and was making inroads in the western market with their expertise, and they were the first companies to make software the number one foreign exchange earner in the country. Please, anybody do correct me, if i am wrong.  Its not that i know everything.  And this started a trend, and India was starting to be recognised as a power to be reckon with. I hope that we as a country always remain a power to be reckon with, and i sincerely hope that we make progress by leaps and bounds.

But we should not forget the unskilled labor who toiled in countries, where oil was yet to be discovered, and they continued to send money back to their loved ones,  This not helped their own folks, but also the country, our India in getting the much needed foreign reserves.  If i remember currently State Bank of India was offering almost 16% interest on non repatriable accounts.  This was unheard of then and now also.

Once again, i thank all the NRI, who have passed away and are in our midst today for helping us become what we are today, a better India