Highlighting India's economic resilience, President Pratibha Patil on Sunday invited the Indian diaspora to share their skills and finances in diverse sectors in the country including education and health and help it build a better future and ensure inclusive growth.
Addressing the valedictory session of the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas here, Patil asked the diaspora for a rapid increase in the "number, size and scope" of their involvement in the country's developmental process while underlining the strong fundamentals of the economy.
"Your expertise and skills will be a vital resource for India's efforts to forge inclusive growth for all its citizens. Your immense capacity in talent, skills, experience and finances are known to all," she said.
Seeking increased investment from the diaspora, Patil hoped that coming days will see more long-term projects involving the community that will have a significant positive impact on many lives.
"We would like to measure such projects not in terms of the money spent on them, but in terms of the humans touched and improved by them," she said, noting that Government was focusing on expanding coverage of quality education, health services and infrastructure.
"I call upon each and every one of you to participate to the best of your ability, in at least one endeavour in India for building a better future for the disadvantaged sections of society," she added.
Calling for deeper two-way engagement, Patil said the country has a "gigantic task of nation building" and the overseas community can contribute immensely in diverse sectors.
"Our economy has been robust in the recent turbulent times, because of the contribution of services and manufacturing sectors, as also of the traditional sectors including, agriculture, animal husbandry and informal services," she said.
"Government's efforts at reducing poverty, imparting schooling and skills, improving health and habitats, and increasing participation of women and socially disadvantage groups in economic activity, can only succeed with the help and co-operation of private initiatives and civil society," she said.
As the final day of Pravasi Bhartiya Divas also marked the 96th anniversary of the homecoming of Mahatma Gandhi, Patil also paid tribute to the father of the nation.
"Gandhiji's thinking had a tremendous impact in India and globally, making him one of the greatest personalities of our times," she said. Indian-American Nikki Haley will script history on Wednesday when she will be sworn-in as
the first woman Governor of South Carolina state, becoming only the second person from the community to hold a gubernatorial post in the US.
Daughter of Sikh immigrant parents from Punjab, Republican Namrata Nikki Randhawa Haley won the November 3 elections to the Governor's post trouncing the Democratic party of US President Barack Obama.
38-year-old Haley, who will be the first non-white Governor of South Carolina, would replace another Indian- American Bobby Jindal to be the youngest current Governor of the US.
Jindal, at present, is the youngest governor.
"This is a new page for South Carolina, and we have a lot of families that want to get involved in that," Haley said. In fact, she is seeking cue from Jindal's success story.
Last week, she appointed Tony Keck, a key aide of Bobby Jindal in Louisiana, to be her next director of the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.
A series of events will kick-off on Tuesday with a 'Family Fun Night' and the swearing-in ceremony is scheduled for Wednesday.
Inaugural gala has been scheduled for later that evening; before which an open house has been arranged at the Governor's Mansion.
"One of the traditional staples of the Haley family is Haley family fun night. And so what you're seeing on Tuesday night is a family fun night that allows anybody from anywhere to come and participate and celebrate the fact that South Carolina is having a new day and be excited about it," Haley said.
Expectations are high from Haley as she takes the mantle of the State governance.
"Nikki Haley must lay out where she wants to take South Carolina in her inaugural address Wednesday, former governors and speech writing experts say. Then, she has to convince South Carolinians to support that vision," The State
wrote.
Haley has herself gone on record to say that her inaugural event would not be at the expense of the tax payer's money.
As a result the events would be reflective of the extremely tight budget this year.
"What I cared about was to make sure as many people that wanted to participate could," she said.
"And then what I also cared about is that this is private funds. That we made sure these were not taxpayer dollars at work. And so of course as we always do, we're going to try to be as conservative as possible.
"But I did not want that to be an issue so private funds is the way that we've raised money to do all these events," Haley said.