WELCOME REMARKS BY MR S ISWARAN, SENIOR MINISTER OF STATE, MINISTRY OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY, AT THE LAUNCH OF THE INDIAN DIASPORA: VOICES OF THE DIASPORIC ELDERS IN FIVE COUNTRIES AND THE SOUTH INDIAN DIASPORA: TRANSNATIONAL NETWORKS AND CHANGING ON 13 OCT 2008 AT 6.30 P.M., LECTURE THEATRE 13, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE.

Associate Professor Chua Fook Kee

Vice-Dean of the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Distinguished guests and friends,

Ladies and Gentlemen

A very good evening to you.

I am pleased to join you today for the launch of the two edited volumes, Indian Diaspora: Voices of the Diasporic Elders in Five Countries and The South Asian Diaspora: Transnational Networks and Changing Identities.

The Indian Diaspora numbers over 25 million, and resides in some 110 countries. Hailing from diverse backgrounds, members of the Indian Diaspora have made signal contributions to the development of their home countries, and will continue to do so in the years to come. Their accomplishments are held in the highest regard in numerous fields; the nobel laureate, V.S Naipaul for his outstanding body of literary work; the billionaire industrialist Lakshmi Mittal at the helm of the world’s largest steel company Arcelor-Mittal and ranked number 4 on the Forbes list of billionaires; and for cricket fans, there is Shivnarine Chanderpaul the cricketeer of the year for 2008. It would be fair to say that the list is distinguished and their achievements distinctive.

The Indian Diaspora is India’s legacy to the world.It is also the world’s link to India.Many members of the overseas Indian community continue to maintain strong ties with family and friends in India, partly as a point of reference for their identity. In recent years, India too has recognized the importance of such linkages – the emigrants are no longer regarded as prodigal sons but rather as valued members of the extended family.India has sought to cultivate its ties with the Indian Diaspora by establishing the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs. Through initiatives such as the “Know India Programme”, which is an annual Scholarship Programme for children of the Diaspora, as well as the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, an annual global forum that seeks to provide a networking platform for members of the Diaspora, the Ministry seeks to ‘promote, nurture and sustain a mutually beneficial relationship between India and its Diaspora’.

A few days ago, Singapore hosted the first Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Asia outside India.It was a watershed event that underscored the close relationship between India and Singapore.Beyond our longstanding historical, cultural and familial bonds, bilateral economic ties between India and Singapore have also grown from strength to strength.The signing of the CECA in 2005 was a milestone, and total bilateral trade has more than trebled from $6.8 billion in 2002 to $23.9 billion in 2007.

The PBD in Singapore provided a good platform for business leaders from India, Singapore and the Indian Diaspora to network and explore opportunities of mutual interest.The success of this conference, which was attended by 700 delegates from 20 countries, attested to the great interest that India's rise has aroused within the international business community.Singapore's position as an international business and financial centre, our historical links with the Diaspora and our excellent ties with India, make us a useful economic gateway for India to the region and beyond.

Singapore is an important node in the global Indian Diaspora.The Indian community is an essential component of Singapore’s multi-cultural society. Our forefathers who arrived on these shores in the colonial era laid the foundations from which later generations of Singaporeans have benefited.In more recent times, we have witnessed a new wave Indian immigrants who have added greater diversity to our society and contributed to Singapore’s position as a top-class knowledge-based economy.

In recognition of this important historical role, the Government has decided to set up an Indian Heritage Centre, which will trace the history of the Indian Diaspora in Singapore and its contributions to Singapore’s development.A committee will be established under the aegis of the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, to work on the design and content of the Heritage Centre.In addition, the Institute of South Asian Studies has set up a South Asia Diaspora Network.It will further develop Singapore as a centre for scholarship on the Indian Diaspora thereby reinforcing our central role in this global network.

From an academic perspective, the launch in October 2006 of the The Encyclopedia of the Indian Diaspora marked a significant milestone that highlighted the National University of Singapore’s commitment towards research in this area. The volumes launched today are the fruits of the continued commitment to the groundwork set by TheEncyclopedia of the Indian Diaspora.

Kalyani Mehta and Amarjit Singh’s edited volume entitled ‘Indian Diaspora: Voices of Indian diasporic elders’ fills an important gap in the study of the Diaspora.It focuses on the voices of the Punjabi, Sindhi and Gujarati Diasporic Indian elderly, articulating their experiences and concerns for the future. The five countries represented are the US, UK, Canada, Malaysia and Singapore.Rajesh Rai and Peter Reeves’ edited volume entitled ‘The South Asian Diaspora: Transnational Networks and Changing Identities’, accounts for the diverse aspects of formation and development of the South Asian Diaspora in 12 locations. The volume uses the concept of transnational networks to break down the boundaries between the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ era of migration, showing the connectedness of many historic South Asian settlements, and goes on to explore the fluid nature of South Asian socio-economic and cultural identities in the Diaspora.

Through sustained dialogue on the issues that the Diaspora currently faces and the potential challenges ahead, this research panel on ‘Facets of the Indian Diaspora’ can and will provide a platform for the discussion of future research on this nascent area of study.

I would like to extend my heartiest congratulations to Associate Professor Kalyani Mehta and Professor Amarjit Singh, Dr Rajesh Rai and Professor Peter Reeves, on the occasion of the publishing of their books.I wish you all a pleasant evening, and a fruitful discussion. Thank you.