Minister Smt. Sushma Swaraj chairs 4th Meeting of IDF-OI

The Overseas Indian Affairs and External Affairs Minister Smt. Sushma Swaraj chaired the Fourth Meeting of the Board of Trustees India Development Foundation of Overseas Indians (IDF-OI) in Jawaharlal Nehru Bhawan New Delhi today. The Secretary, Overseas Indian Affairs, Shri Sunil Soni was also be present in the meeting.

The Board of Trustees of India Development Foundation of Overseas Indians, Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, present in the meeting included,

Smt. Vani Rao, Joint Secretary (Financial Services), Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs

Dr. Bhishma Kumar Agnihotri, President, Friends of India Society International & Chairman, Bharat Swabhiman Overseas


Mr. Joginder Pal Sanger, Chairman, Mastcraft Limited UK


Mr. Yusuff Ali M.A., Managing Director, Lulu Group


Ms. Ritu Beri, Managing Director, Ritu Beri Designs


Ashok Vishwasrao Chowgule, Joint Managing Director, Chowgule and Co. Pvt Ltd


Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak Founder, Sulabh Sanitation and Social Reform Movement.


The India Development Foundation of Overseas Indians (IDF-OI) is a not for profit Trust established to serve as a credible institutional avenue to enable overseas Indians to engage in philanthropy to supplement India’s social development efforts. IDF-OI channelises the philanthropic propensities and resources of the overseas Indian community into national development and social projects.


The Trust has a two-tier structure comprising the Board of Trustees and the Executive Directorate. The Foundation is chaired by the Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs.


The broad objectives of the Trust are:


1. Lead overseas Indian philanthropy into India and facilitate partnerships through single window facilitation and by building philanthropic partnerships.


2. Establish and maintain a ‘Social Capital and Philanthropy Network’ on India that can provide a list of credible institutions, projects and programmes.


3. Function as a clearing house for all philanthropy related information on India.


4. Partner with and encourage credible philanthropic organisations in the sectors that best match need based philanthropy.


5. Promote accountability and ‘good practices’ in overseas Indian philanthropy.


IDF-OI is partnering with international, national and state level NGOs as well as State Governments and local self government institutions, for effective implementation. 33 NGOs (Non- Governmental Organizations who are FCRA approved by MHA) from 7 States have officially confirmed their participation to IDF- OI with their projects. These projects cover a wide gamut of activities such as skills development, local self governance, education for children, health initiatives, sustainable agriculture and livelihood creation, vocational training programmes, programmes for visually challenged and differently abled children among others. Besides these, State Governments have also confirmed their participation to IDF-OI. Since 2011, IDF-OI has helped in channelizing contributions from overseas donors towards social development projects in Assam, Rajasthan and Gujarat in the areas of water conservation, rainwater harvesting, educating and mainstreaming differently abled children, women’s education and sustainable livelihood.


The meeting of the Board of Trustees decided the action plan for FY 2015-16, which focuses on various Projects including collaboration with Govt. of India’s flagship programmes like Namami Gange, Swachh Bharat and Swachh Vidyalaya, State Governments projects and NGO projects and Projects selected by the NRI/PIO donors. Modalities like Implementation of projects and Quality control, Monitoring and reporting to donors were also deliberated and given go-ahead by the board of trustees. The Board also deliberated on the Outreach plan for FY 2015-16.


For the Outreach Plan for FY 2015-16, IDF-OI proposes to hold outreach meeting wherein overseas Indians will be informed about the activities of the organization and projects will be posed for funding. These meetings will have to be done in association with our Missions/ Posts, as also in the various Indian associations active abroad. Focus can be given to areas where there is large concentration of overseas Indians with philanthropic propensities. For this purpose, IDF-OI has identified 7 global zones of diaspora concentration. It proposes to conduct 2-3 meetings in different cities in each of these zones in this financial year.


1. North America- a) USA b) Canada


2. South East Asia- a) Malaysia b) Singapore c) Mauritius d) Reunion Island e) Indonesia


3. Australasia- a) Australia b) New Zealand c) Fiji


4. Africa- a) South Africa b) Kenya c) Uganda


5. Gulf- a) UAE b) Saudi Arabia c) Bahrain d) Oman e) Qatar f) Kuwait


6. UK & Europe- a) UK b) France c) Germany d) Italy e) Netherlands


7. South America & Caribbean- a) Guyana b) Suriname c) Trinidad & TobagoBesides the above, IDF-OI will participate in State diaspora events for outreach to Indian Diaspora. It will also reach out to the diaspora through the annual Pravasi Bharatiya Divas and the Ministry’s outreach events throughout the year. -PIB

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Summary of Economic Survey 2012-13

Indian economy is likely to grow between 6.1% to 6.7% in 2013-14 as the downturn is more or less over and the economy is looking up. Following the slowdown induced by the global financial crisis in 2008-09, the Indian economy responded strongly to fiscal and monetary stimulus and achieved a growth rate of 8.6 per cent and 9.3 per cent respectively in 2009-10 and 2010-11, but due to a combination of both external and domestic factors, the economy decelerated growing at 6.2% and an estimated 5% in 2011-12 and 2012-13 respectively. The Economic Survey 2012-13, presented by the Finance Minister Shri P. Chidambaram in the Lok Sabha predicts that the global economy is also likely to recover in 2013 and various government measures will help in improving the Indian economy’s outlook for 2013-14. While India’s recent slowdown is partly rooted in external causes, domestic causes are also important. The slowdown in the rate of growth of services in 2011-12 at 8.2%, and particularly in 2012-13 to 6.6 percent from the double-digit growth of the previous six years, contributed significantly to slowdown in the overall growth of the economy, while some slowdown could also be attributed to the lower growth in agriculture and industrial activities. But despite the slowdown, the services sector has shown more resilience to worsening external conditions than agriculture and industry. For improved agricultural growth, the survey underlines the need for stable and consistent policies where markets play an appropriate role, private investment in infrastructure is stepped up, food price, food stock management and food distribution improves, and a predictable trade policy is adopted for agriculture. FDI in retail allowed by the government can pave the way for investment in new technology and marketing of agricultural produce in India. Fast agricultural growth remains vital for jobs, incomes and food security.

The survey points out that the priority for the Government will be to fight high inflation by reducing the fiscal impetus to demand as well as by focusing on incentivizing food production through measures other than price supports. But unlike the previous year, when food inflation was mainly driven by higher protein food prices, this year the pressure has been coming mainly from cereals. On the Balance of Payments and External Position, the survey highlights that with net exports declining, India’s balance of payments has come under pressure. Moreover, in the current fiscal, foreign exchange reserves have fluctuated between US$ 286 billion and US$ 295.6 billion, while the rupee remained volatile in the range of Rs 53.02 to Rs 54.78 per US dollar during October 2012 to January 2013.

The survey had a special chapter focusing on jobs. The future holds promise for India provided we can seize the “demographic dividend” as nearly half the additions to the Indian labour force over the period 2011-30 will be in the age group 30-49. India is creating jobs in industry but mainly in low productivity construction and not enough formal jobs in manufacturing, which typically are higher productivity. The high productivity service sector is also not creating enough jobs. As the number of people looking for jobs rises, both because of the population dividend and because share of agriculture shrinks, these vulnerabilities will become important. Because good jobs are both the pathway to growth as well as the best form of inclusion, India has to think of ways of enabling their creation.

The survey calls for a widening of the tax base, and prioritization of expenditure as key ingredients of a credible medium term fiscal consolidation plan. This along with demand compression and augmented agricultural production should lead to lower inflation, giving the RBI the requisite flexibility to reduce policy rates. Lower interest rates could provide an additional fillip to investment activity for the industry and services sectors, especially if some of the regulatory, bureaucratic, and financial impediments to investment are eased. On financial sector reform, it takes note of the high level of gross NPAs (non-performing assets) of the banking sector which increased from 2.36 percent of the total credit advanced in March 2011 to 3.57 percent of total credit advanced in September 2012. The survey suggests that revival of growth will help contain NPAs, but more attention will have to be paid to whether projects are adequately capitalized up front given the risks. Expenditure on social services also increased considerably in the 12th Plan, with the education sector accounting for the largest share, followed by health. In the 11th Plan period nearly 7 lakh crore rupees has been spent on the 15 major flagship programmes. A number of legislative steps have also been taken to secure the rights of people, like the RTI, MGNREGA, the Forest Rights Act, AND THE Right to Education. However, the survey notes that there are pressing governance issues like programme leakages and funds not reaching the targeted beneficiaries that need to be addressed. Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) with the help of the Unique Identification Number (Aadhaar) can help plug some of these leakages. With the 12th Plan’s focus on ‘environmental sustainability’, India is on the right track. However, the challenge for India is to make the key drivers and enablers of growth-be it infrastructure, the transportation sector, housing, or sustainable agriculture-grow sustainably.

Dr. Raghuram G. Rajan, Chief Economic Adviser, Ministry of Finance writes in an introduction to the Survey that these are difficult times, but India has navigated such times before, and with good policies it will come through stronger. Slowdown is a wake-up call for increasing the pace of actions and reforms. The way out lies in shifting national spending from consumption to investment, removing the bottlenecks to investment, growth, and job creation, in part through structural reforms, combating inflation both through monetary and supply side measures, reducing the costs for borrowers of raising finances and increasing the opportunities for savers to get strong real investment returns.

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