Govt to create data bank of Indians abroad

Manash Pratim Bhuyan & Priyanka Tikoo

New Delhi, Jun 28 (PTI) Ministry of Overseas Indian
Affairs (MOIA) has launched an ambitious project to create a
data bank of all those going abroad to ensure their
well-being, a move triggered by incidents of attacks on
Indians abroad.

The project, first of its kind, was taken up after the
Ministry realised that there was no statistics available with
the government to keep track of its citizens abroad to ensure
their well-being and safety in view of the recent violent
attacks on Indian students in Australia.

Starting initially with the students, the data bank, will
have all the details about them, such as the name of the city
where they are residing, name of the college/university they
are studying at and place of their work.

"The data bank project is a very very ambitious project.
It is being created to keep a track and ensure well-being of
our students in foreign countries," Overseas Indian Affairs
Minister Vayalar Ravi told PTI in an interview.

Ravi, who became the Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs
Minister for the second successive term, said his Ministry is
in consultation with the Home Ministry on the logistics of the
project besides being in talks with the Ministry of External
Affairs for its successful implementation.

He said the data bank is being created as part of efforts
to institutionalise mechanism for safety and well-being of the
Indian students studying abroad.

"The project is aimed at knowing how many students are
going abroad in a year, where they are going and which are the
institutions they are studying, among others," Ravi said.

At present, the government does not have any proper data
bank about students who go out of the country to pursue higher
education.

"Now, only the source is the airports. We will make a
campaign for the students to registrar with us through e-mails
also," Ravi said.

The Ministry is also planning various measures to get the
information about the travellers, including distributing an
additional form at the emigration counter to gather details
about their visits.

"We are trying to get it through the airport immigration
where we can supply a form. The boys who go out can fill up
the form," Ravi said.

The Minister said he has spoken to Australian authorities
to give details about the Indian students studying in that
country.

"I also talked to the Australia's secretary of Education.
They agreed to supply the details of visa issued to Indian
students to our High Commission," he said. Over 97,000 Indian
students are currently studying in various Australian
universities and institutions.

On the attacks on the Indian students in Australia, he
said India has asked the Australian authorities to amend
existing laws pertaining to universities so that there could
be institutionalised mechanism to ensure safety of foreign
students. PTI MPB/PYK