The forgotten Indian diaspora

But unlike the NRIs, who officially are Indian citizens and can own businesses in India, the PIOs can do so only if they possess 8220;Overseas Indian cards8221;.

The 8220;stateless8221; are the ones who had gone abroad through inappropriate channels and without valid documents and find themselves in a bind as without documents, they cannot support their claim to be Indians either.

The report by the High Level Committee on the Indian Diaspora 8212; set up by the Centre under the chairmanship of Dr LM Singhvi in September 2000 8212; which catalogued the PIOs and NRIs, came up with some interesting figures.

The largest number of Indians currently reside in the USA 1,678,765, followed by UK 1,200,000 and South Africa 1,000,000 Lowest number of Indians are to be found in Cape Verde 4, Lithuania, Equador, South Korea 5 and Croatia 10.

Country PIOs NRIs Stateless

Myanmar 2,500,000 2,000 400,000

Malaysia 1,600,000 15,000 50,000

Australia 160,000 30,000

Canada 700,000 150,000 1,000

Trinidad 038; Tobago500,000 600

Suriname 150,306 150

Guyana 395,250 100

Switzerland 8,400 4,800 300

Sweden 9,000 2,000

Argentina 1,200 400

Afghanistan 500

Peru 10 135

Egypt 40 1,350

Poland 75 750

China 5 300

Cape Verde 4

Romania 2 489

Columbia 1 19

Costa Rica 1 15

Maldives 1 9,000