SINGAPORE - Indians living and working overseas have helped India build relationships with other countries, India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said, as he called for “a contemporary way” of viewing India’s brain drain.

India can actually benefit by tapping into an expansion of the global workplace, he added.

“Drawing a line – this is inside, and that is outside, and when people go outside we lose something; I think we need to get over it,” said Dr Jaishankar, when asked about the problem of brain drain in India at a lecture organised by the Institute of South Asian Studies of the National University of Singapore here on March 23.

There are about 33 to 34 million Indians and people of Indian origin living abroad. He said that they contribute enormously to India, whether financially, in terms of ideas or even in boosting ties with the countries they live in.

“Many of our key relationships have changed because, actually, Indians have built relationships abroad,” Dr Jaishankar said.

“If I look at Singapore, if I look at the United States, I look at the UK, I don’t think our relationship would be the same if you minimise the diaspora factor,” he added.  

“So, I would urge you to look at it in a much more contemporary way, much more linked today to what would be the collective requirements of a global economy, and how India can today actually benefit by tapping into it.

“An expansion of the global workplace is actually to India’s benefit, it is not something which is to India’s detriment.”

Dr Jaishankar’s remarks signalled a gentler tone on the brain drain issue, while connecting members of the Indian diaspora to their ancestral country.

In December 2023, India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told students there was no need to rush to any other country for better standards of living as India can provide quality of life to its citizens.

India’s government told its Parliament in 2021 it had a strategy to retain the best of the country’s talent, after revealing that more than 600,000 people had given up their Indian citizenship in the last five years.

India was expected to lose 6,500 millionaires in 2023 – the second top loser of millionaires after China, which was projected to lose 13,500 millionaires in 2023, according to Henley & Partners’ Private Wealth Migration Report.

Dr Jaishankar is on a three-day visit to Singapore, which started on March 23. Besides delivering a lecture on “Why Bharat Matters”, he will also call on Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, as well as other ministers.

He also addressed the status of Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs) – a community that has come under the spotlight in recent months, after the government cancelled the residency permits of more than 100 in the diaspora in the past decade over alleged anti-national speech.

The OCI status allows foreign citizens of Indian origin – numbering about 4.5 million – or foreigners married to Indian citizens to enter India without a visa, and to reside, work and hold property, among other benefits. But they have no voting rights.

An audience member at the lecture, who identified as an OCI, asked if OCIs can have dual citizenship. India does not allow for dual citizenships.

Dr Jaishankar said the OCI was a policy decided upon during former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s time about 20 years ago. The scheme was part of a concerted effort to reach out to overseas Indians.

“I’m not aware of any specific discussion saying, ‘Okay, beyond that (reaching out to overseas Indians), what do we do?’ I think people are still mulling it over and talking. That’s the state of play,” Dr Jaishankar said.

Another member of the audience asked about the desirability of the Indian passport, and why it is not granted visa-free access to more countries. In the latest Henley Passport Index, which measures the global mobility of passports, India is ranked 83rd out of 199.

Dr Jaishankar said with a laugh: “This ranking is a bit awkward for me to question because Singapore is right on top.

“But I will give you a very interesting ranking. Imagine if you made a ranking of passports saying, in conflict situations, when people are in trouble, your governments will come and get you from day one.”

The Indian government has launched a number of evacuations for its citizens in troubled zones, the latest of which was to evacuate its citizens stranded in war-torn Haiti.