Sunday, January 8 2006 15:59 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Hyderabad: Time has come to get the scientific community of Indians overseas engaged in the development of India, leading NRI industrialist and Chairman of Hinduja Group, S P Hinduja told NRI Convention here.

"For India to succeed in the coming decades, it needs to transform itself from being merely the 'shop floor' of the world to an owner of an intellectual property and technology," Hinduja said adding, "The vast pool of scientific Indian manpower in foreign lands can be channelled to constitute the cutting-edge of technology for solving India's many social problems such as drinking water and sanitation."

"This pool of scientific talent can propel India into the forefront of the new age with alternative sources of energy or with biotechnology," Hinduja said.

He also stressed the need to create research institutes overseas with state-of-the-art facilities and appropriate compensation levels, with support from both the Indian Government and Indian private enterprises.

"We then need to engage our Indian scientists to join these institutes overseas for developing cutting-edge technologies, both for use by India and for sale in the world markets. Only then will we be able to harness the talent and potential of Indian scientists and technocrats overseas for our country's full benefit, and for the further enhancement of our growing image in the world," Hinduja said.

Hinduja further said big opportunity is awaiting NRIs in furthering the acceleration of India's trade and economy.

"Notwithstanding the image of a closed economy, India's external trade is as much as that of the United States in volume. It constitutes approximately 25 per cent of the Gross Domestic Products (GDP)," Hinduja said.

"At this level of external engagement, further progress on India's international trade is not only feasible but will also act as a major driver of growth," he said observing that it is in this sector that NRIs could play a larger role.

He said that businessmen are already familiar with and are closely linked to the potential that India offers, and a significant amount of progress has been made to engage them in the development of Indian economy.

He said that the expatriate Indian workers contribution is signficant, both in relative and absolute terms and as a proportion of their total income and wealth, as the volumes of remittances increase higher and now rank among the foremost contributions to our foreign exchange reserves.

The volume of such remittance into India by overseas Indians has increased fourfolds in the last decade to reach their present annual level of USD 20 billion, he added.