Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said the overseas Indian community can play a role in shaping Indian start-ups and announced that NRI mentors will be soon brought on the same platform as Indian start-ups.
E-passport service may also soon become a reality with government working on introducing a chip-based system, the PM said addressing about 5,000 NRIs at the fifteenth Pravasi Bhartiya Divas convention in Varanasi on Tuesday.
“The government is trying to bring India’s start-ups and NRI mentors on the same platform. Defence manufacturing can also be an important sector for you,” Modi said, addressing the 5,000 overseas Indian participants at the conclave.
Modi, however, did not elaborate on what benefits NRI mentors would be eligible for once they are brought on the same platform as start-ups.
The PM said his government, over the last four years, had given over Rs 5,80,000 crore worth of benefits under various schemes through direct transfers to the accounts of beneficiaries resulting in zero leakages.
Taking a dig at the Congress, Modi said that a former PM (indirectly referring to Rajiv Gandhi) had admitted that just 15 per cent of government spends were transferred to beneficiaries while 85 per cent was siphoned off, but had done nothing to check it. “By using technology, my government ended the 85 per cent loot 100 per cent,” he said.