The government is making efforts to facilitate Non-Resident Indians to do business with India, S K Krishna Kumar, secretary, ministry of overseas Indian affairs, said.
He also informed a large gathering of Indian Americans in San Francisco on Monday that NRIs holding US passports should be able to apply for dual citizenship from November 1.
Responding to questions on issues concerning philanthropic, business and commercial investments in India, Kumar said the government is doing everything possible to make it easier for overseas Indians to invest in the country.
About the difficulties faced by NRI-run philanthropic organisations in carrying out development work in India, Kumar said his ministry planned to form partnerships with state governments to facilitate the process so that more philanthropic organisations could invest.
Dispelling fears that this was a government attempt to control, centralise or standardise, the secretary said, "This is not to say that you should give the money to us or we will be the broker. By definition, non-governmental organisations are more comfortable working with other NGOs. We will help you identify credible NGOs, their track record and the modalities of carrying out the work."
Commenting on funding for education institutions, Kumar said the new government was very keen on individual institutions of excellence, be it the Indian Institutes of Technology or other institutions, going and getting donations, which will then fund their long-term research. However, he encouraged the audience to look beyond the IITs.
"Regional engineering colleges have now been upgraded to National Institutes of Technology and I would request NRIs to discover more such institutions. The IITs are institutes that we are proud of, but so are the National Institutes of Technology."
Commenting on the concerns raised by many members of the audience about a proposal to tax interest income from NRI deposits, he said this proposal was in pursuance of the new government's efforts to rationalise the country's direct tax regime.
He assured the audience that his ministry would urge the finance ministry not to implement this proposal since it could compel many people to switch their deposits, may be even out of India.
"We will make our case to the finance ministry to ensure that the tax regime stays as transparent and as favourable to you as possible."
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