Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs

Last updated

Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs
Pravāsī Bhāratīya Kārya Mantrālay
Emblem of India.svg
Ministry overview
FormedMay 2004 (2004-05)
Dissolved7 January 2016
Superseding agency
Jurisdiction Government of India
Headquarters Akbar Bhawan, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi [1]
Website www.mea.gov.in/overseas-indian-affairs.htm

The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) was a ministry of the Government of India. It was dedicated to all matters relating to the Indian diaspora around the world.

Contents

History

Ministry was established in May 2004 as the Ministry of Non-Resident Indians' Affairs. It was renamed as the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) in September 2004. [2]

Positioned as a ‘Services’ Ministry, it provided information, partnerships and facilitations for all matters related to Overseas Indians: Non-Resident Indian and Person of Indian Origin. [2]

The Ministry was merged with the Ministry of External Affairs on 7 January 2016. [3] The government said that the decision was taken in line with government's "overall objective of minimizing government and maximizing governance" and that it will help the government address duplication as well as unnecessary delays. [4]

Structure

The Ministry had four functional service divisions to handle its services: [2]

First two divisions were headed by Joint Secretaries. The Protector General of Emigrants (PGoE) headed the Overseas Employment Services Division. The Social Services Unit and the Management Services Unit were staffed with officers of the rank of Deputy Secretary. The Information Services Unit was headed by Senior Technical Director (NIC). [5]

The ministry also sponsored the annual Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (Non-resident Indian Day) established in 2003, when it also instituted the annual Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award. [6]

Cabinet Ministers

#PortraitMinister
(Birth-Death)
Term of officePolitical partyMinistryPrime Minister
FromToPeriod
Minister of Non-Resident Indian Affairs
1 Jagdish Tytler in Mumbai on January 6, 2005.jpg Jagdish Tytler
(born 1944)
MP for Delhi Sadar

(MoS, I/C)
23 May
2004
9 September
2004
109 days Indian National Congress Manmohan I Manmohan Singh
Ministers of Overseas Indian Affairs
(1) Jagdish Tytler in Mumbai on January 6, 2005.jpg Jagdish Tytler
(born 1944)
MP for Delhi Sadar

(MoS, I/C)
9 September
2004
10 August
2005
335 days Indian National Congress Manmohan I Manmohan Singh
Manmohan Singh in 2009.jpg Manmohan Singh
(born 1932)
Rajya Sabha MP for Assam

(Prime Minister) [7]
10 August
2005
18 November
2005
100 days
2 Oscar Fernandes at launch of the Pilot Project for Cashless Treatment of Road Accident Victims on Gurgaon-Jaipur Stretch of NH-8.jpg Oscar Fernandes
(1941–2021)
Rajya Sabha MP for Karnataka

(MoS, I/C)
18 November
2005
29 January
2006
72 days
3 Vayalar Ravi-crop.jpg Vayalar Ravi
(born 1937)
Rajya Sabha MP for Kerala
29 January
2006
22 May
2009
8 years, 117 days
28 May
2009
26 May
2014
Manmohan II
4 Sushma Swaraj in 2014.jpg Sushma Swaraj
(1952–2019)
MP for Vidisha
26 May
2014
7 January
2016
1 year, 226 days Bharatiya Janata Party Modi I Narendra Modi
Merged with Ministry of External Affairs. [8]

Ministers of State

#PortraitMinister
(Birth-Death)
Term of officePolitical partyMinistryPrime Minister
FromToPeriod
Minister of State for Overseas Indian Affairs
1 India's Minister of State for External Affairs Vijay Kumar Singh (15760995677) (cropped).jpg General (Retd.)
V. K. Singh
PVSM AVSM YSM ADC
(born 1950)
MP for Ghaziabad
26 May
2014
7 January
2016
1 year, 226 days Bharatiya Janata Party Modi I Narendra Modi
Merged with Ministry of External Affairs.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minister of External Affairs (India)</span> Head of the Ministry of External Affairs

The Minister of External Affairs is the head of the Ministry of External Affairs of the Government of India. One of the senior-most offices in the Union Cabinet, the chief responsibility of the Foreign Minister is to represent India and its government in the international community. The Foreign Minister also plays an important role in determining Indian foreign policy. Occasionally, the Foreign Minister is assisted by a Minister of State for External Affairs or the lower-ranked Deputy Minister of External Affairs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pravasi Bharatiya Samman</span> Award

The Pravasi Bharatiya Samman is the highest Indian award for Overseas Indians or an organisation or institution established and run by Overseas Indian diaspora, constituted by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, Government of India in conjunction with the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, to honour exceptional and meritorious contribution in their chosen field/profession. The award is given by the President of India. Since 2016, the Government of India has doubled the number of awardees each year to 30 after a decision to grant the award once every two years.

Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is a celebratory day observed on 9 January by the Republic of India to mark the contribution of the Overseas Indian community towards the development of India. The day commemorates the return of Mahatma Gandhi from South Africa to Mumbai on 9 January 1915.

Fitzval Remedios Santana Neville de Souza, often known as Dr. F. R. S. de Souza and Fitz de Souza, was a Kenyan lawyer and politician who was an important figure in the campaign for independence for Kenya, a member of the Kenyan parliament in the 1960s and Deputy Speaker for several years. He helped provide a legal defence for those accused of Mau Mau activities including the Kapenguria Six, and he was one of the people involved in the Lancaster House conferences held to draw up a constitutional framework for Kenyan independence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sushma Swaraj</span> Indian stateswoman and diplomat (1952–2019)

Sushma Swaraj was an Indian lawyer, politician, and diplomat who served as the Minister of External Affairs of India in the first Narendra Modi government from 2014 to 2019. She was the second person to complete a 5-year term as the Minister of External Affairs, after Jawaharlal Nehru. A senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Swaraj was the second woman to hold the office of Minister of External Affairs, after Indira Gandhi. She was elected seven times as a Member of Parliament and three times as a Member of the Legislative Assembly. At the age of 25 in 1977, she became the youngest cabinet minister of the Indian state of Haryana. She also served as 5th Chief Minister of Delhi for a short duration in 1998 and became the first female Chief Minister of Delhi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ministry of External Affairs (India)</span> Indias Foreign Ministry

The Ministry of External Affairs of India is the government agency responsible for implementing Indian foreign policy. The Ministry of External Affairs is headed by the Minister of External Affairs, a Cabinet Minister. The Foreign Secretary, an Indian Foreign Service officer, is the most senior civil servant who is the head of the Department of Foreign Affairs. The Ministry represents the Government of India through embassies and is also responsible for India's representation at the United Nations and other international organizations and expanding and safeguarding India's influence and Indian interests across the world by providing developmental aid to other countries worth billions of dollars. It also advises other Ministries and State Governments on foreign governments and institutions.

M. Arunaachalam is a Hong Kong-based businessman and entrepreneur, born and educated in India. He has previously been the chairman of The Indian Chamber of Commerce Hong Kong, and as of 2009, he has been a member of its General Committee. Arunaachalam is also the chairman of the Indian Chamber Fiftieth Anniversary Education Trust and the Disaster Relief Fund for India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ram Lakhina</span> Indian entrepreneur and community leader

Ram Labhaya Lakhina is an Indian entrepreneur and community leader living in Oegstgeest, Netherlands. He was the first Chairman of the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO). He is the Founder, former chairman and now Chairman Emeritus of the Netherlands India Chamber of Commerce and Trade (NICCT), serves as a Chairman of the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Foundation, and is one of the founders of The World Forum for Ethics and Business.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sushma Swaraj's tenure as External Affairs Minister</span>

Sushma Swaraj was the Indian External Affairs Minister under Prime Minister Narendra Modi from May 2014 till May 2019, responsible for implementing the foreign policy of Narendra Modi. She is only the second women to hold this position after Indira Gandhi

<span class="mw-page-title-main">C. K. Menon</span> Indian entrepreneur and philanthropist (1949–2019)

Cheril Krishna Menon was an Indian entrepreneur and philanthropist. He was the Chairman and Managing Director of Behzad Corporation, headquartered in Doha, Qatar, which has presence in many other countries. He received the 2006 Pravasi Bharatiya Samman and in 2009 received the fourth highest Indian civilian award, Padma Shri, from Government of India, in 2009, with. He died after prolonged illness at Apollo Hospital, Chennai on 1 October 2019, aged 70.

The Middle East region plays a vital role in India's economy as it supplies nearly two-thirds of India's total oil import, bilateral trade is also flourishing in recent years particularly with UAE and other Arab states of the Persian Gulf. Over the years, millions of Indians mostly working class have migrated to the Persian Gulf region looking for jobs and they account for a sizeable share in the total remittances received from abroad. Indian External Affairs Ministry refers the region as West Asia and not as Middle East which is a more popular attribution, particularly in the Western countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ashwin Adhin</span> Surinamese politician

Michael Ashwin Satyandre Adhin is a Surinamese educator, politician, and was the Vice President of Suriname between 2015 and 2020. He is a member of the National Democratic Party. At the age of 35, he became the youngest vice president in the history of Suriname to lead the Council of Ministers. Adhin is a Hindu of Indian descent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mukund Purohit</span>

Mukund Purohit is an Indo-Canadian entrepreneur. He serves as chairman and managing director of Neapolitan Pizza Limited.

Sant Singh Virmani is a US-based Indian plant breeder, rice scientist and a former Principal Scientist at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). He served IRRI from 1979 to 2005 and retired from its service as the deputy head of the Plant Breeding, Genetics and Biochemistry Division.

Panchapakesa Jayaraman is an Indian writer, scholar, vedic priest and a former executive director of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, USA. He is a known academic in Vedic Studies and Indian philosophy. He has edited six and authored 12 books including, Subrahmaṇya Bhāratī: Bhārata sapūta, published in 1967 by Kshitija Prakāśana.

India Development Foundation of Overseas Indians (IDF-OI) www.idfoi.nic.in is a not for profit Trust established in 2008 by Government of India with the approval of the Cabinet to serve as a credible institutional avenue to enable overseas Indians to engage in philanthropy to supplement India's social and development efforts. The New Delhi-based Trust is chaired by Sushma Swaraj, Minister for External Affairs and is exempt from the provisions of Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 (FCRA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World Hindi Secretariat</span>

World Hindi Secretariat (WHS),, is an international organisation of nations and regions where Hindi is the first or customary language with significant proportion of population consisting of Hindi speakers and/or with notable affiliation with North Indian culture. WHS is focused on promoting Hindi as an international language and furthering the cause of recognition of Hindi as an official language of the United Nations. India has been trying to get 129 votes at the United Nations to make Hindi an official language of the UN. WHS is head quartered at Vacoas-Phoenix city in Plaines Wilhems District of Mauritius.

Samman may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Know India Programme</span>

Know India Programme abbreviated as KIP is a government initiative by the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India for the Indian diaspora between the age group of 18 to 30 years. It was launched on 8 January 2014, on the occasion of Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in New Delhi. The purpose of the Know India Programme is to help Persons of Indian Origin youths familiarize with their roots and contemporary India and provide them an exposure to the country of their origin. From 2016, six KIPs a year are being organised.

Valavoor Kizhakkathil Rajasekharan Pillai or VKR Pillai is an Indian businessman from Kuttamperoor, Mannar in Alappuzha district of Kerala, living in Bahrain. He is the Chairman of Bahrain headquartered national group of companies in Bahrain. He has been awarded the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award 2017, the highest honor conferred on non-resident Indians by the President of India.

References

  1. "Important Contacts". Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 "An Overview". Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016.
  3. Sushma Swaraj [@SushmaSwaraj] (7 January 2016). "Hon'ble Prime Minister has kindly accepted my proposal. So MOIA will now be part of Ministry of External Affairs" (Tweet) via Twitter.
  4. "Government to merge overseas Indian affairs ministry with MEA - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
  5. "About Us". Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs. Archived from the original on 15 August 2007.
  6. "Pravasi Bharatiya Divas". Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs website. Archived from the original on 26 November 2010.
  7. "Council of Ministers" (PDF).
  8. Bureau, BW Online. "Ministry Of Overseas Indian Affairs Merged With External Affairs Ministry". BW Businessworld. Retrieved 21 April 2021.