How NRIs Play a Crucial Role in the Economy

• NRI can play a significant role in shaping the country’s financial, social, and economic conditions. In the last few years, NRIs have started merging into varied activities in India including market development such as outsourcing, technology transfer, and tourism.

• Many NRI businesses like UAE based companies-Lulu International, NMC Healthcare, etc announced major multi-million investment projects in India. All these will create new employment opportunities in the country and the economy will gain momentum.

• remittances/transfers by NRIs back to their families, relatives, or friends are one of the major sources of foreign exchange inflows into the country.

• NRIs can help promote cultural exchange between both their home country and the country they are living in. This can lead to a greater understanding and appreciation of each other’s cultures which can benefit the economy by promoting trade and investment opportunities. 

 NRI stands for Non-Resident Indian. Non-residents Indian are born into Indian citizens. However, if they emigrated to some other countries for any purpose for more than a given time frame they are considered Non-resident Indians. According to the law of the land, any person who is living outside the territory of India for more than 182 days of a calendar year would be considered an NRI. For an NRI it is mandatory to hold a passport issued by the Government of India. The emigration of such citizens could be anything. It may be some educational purpose, some work relayed purpose, residence, or some other purpose. However, it should be noted that they are citizens of India who live outside the country, and not foreigners.

According to some new constitutional amendments an NRI will be recognized as overseas Indians ( OCs). The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs deals with the affairs related to Non-residents of India. All the classification and other statutory provisions related to Non-residents of India are dealt with by this Ministry.